The Remains of the Day (1993)

We don’t hear enough stories from the survivors of the Holocaust and that’s sad. Ironically, there are ample biopics about Hitler and that’s even more sad and disturbing.

At the heart of “Eleanor The Great” is the story of “Bessie”(Rita Zohar), a Jewish woman who survived the Holocaust. She and her best friend “Eleanor”(June Squibb) are two spirited nonagenarians living in Florida with vigor. When “Bessie” suddenly passes away, “Eleanor” is devastated. She soon relocates to Manhattan and moves in with her daughter “Lisa” (Jessica Hecht) and her grandson “Max”(Will Price).

“LIsa” wants her mother to have a full life complete with social activity so she signs her up for a singing class at the Jewish Community Center. While observing the class from the hallway, “Eleanor” strikes up a conversation with another woman who assumes she is there for the “group” meeting.

As it turns out, this “group” is for Holocaust survivors desiring to process their trauma. She tries to leave since she isn’t a survivor but they implore her to stay. This is where she meets “Nina”(Erin Kellyman), a journalism student seeking a subject for her latest article. It was good to see the “Falcon And The Winter Soldier” antagonist stave off typecasting by showing off the range in her character acting chops.

Much like Kramer vs Kramer, this ironically named movie follows the disintegration of a marriage and the legal processes therein of divorcing your spouse (a more contextually harmonious title would be “End of Marriage Story” or even “Divorce Story”). But Noah Baumbach names his film Marriage Story because the premise he chases after is something like “love conquers all, even divorce.” This is why he oscillates between the little expressions of love and couples that with the vehement anger and disgust expressed by our two ill-fated lovers, Charlie(Adam Driver) and Nicole(Scarlett Johansson).

These characters share a son, Henry, whose custody and place of living is the main question they argue about. Both Charlie and Nicole feel like they lose their agency and control to their attorneys in the divorce process. The divorce lawyers construct an illusory version of the truth in order to win the case rather than listening to the truth that organically emanates from the characters. This seems like a good metaphor for the film as a whole, where the illusion of “real” takes precedence over the authentic.

Which brings us to our emotional stakes. Marriage Story feels like it sprung from the mind of a theater director who wanted to put up a play where the only note was to “be real”. And so, as often these plays become, it transmogrifies into a clinical study where true emotion gets substituted for sensational artifice.