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He tends to go for the ugliest nuggets the jagged shards, which draw blood on extraction.
But its all relative.
So much for positivity.
For his part, Charlie doesnt seem set on the divorce.
Hes moving slowly, mulishly, weighed down by the prospect of being alone and quite possibly an Angeleno.
Try as you might, its hard to separate the fictional from the true.
Nicole is obviously modeled on Baumbachs ex-wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, with whom he had a son.
Like Nicole, Leigh grew up in a Hollywood showbiz family, very (perhaps too?)
close to her mother and sister, and she gained fame doffing her top in a landmark teen comedy.
Johansson has Leighs recognizable mix of earnest good nature and neuroticism.
Shes smart but also skittery, undefended.
The connection between Charlie and Baumbach is less one-to-one so much less that it seems a bit unfair.
Charlie is certainly a tad overbearing.
Did he stifle Nicole by keeping her in New York, away from her people?
Did he muzzle her creativity by refusing to let her direct?
And surely that MacArthur grant tells you hes agreatartist, someone who puts his very soul into his work.
Doesnt that count for something?
Now, Charlie is paying hard for his inattention and brief (but not unjustified) dalliance.
What draws you intoMarriage Storyisnt the particulars but the form, theattack.
(That was the Oscar take!)
But Nicole recedes in the story when the lawyers take over and put Charlie through the wringer.
Its his divorce story, not hers.
Nicole is such an easy mark.)
The worst things are the intended showstoppers.
Couldnt Baumbach have come up with own damn epiphany?
