Writer-director Noah Baumbach likes to make difficult films about difficult people. When he’s working at his highest capabilities, he shows otherwise normal or sympathetic characters in their least flattering moments to remind us all that we are all human and that we are all part of the morally compromising, complex system that is humanity. Much like his break-through 2005 feature “The Squid and the Whale,” his latest work “Marriage Story” explores the subject of divorce and the domestic hardships it brings when kids are involved. Though, instead of exploring divorce through the perspective of the child, the film uses the end of their union to bring into focus the faded blueprint of their foundational love.

Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson star as Charlie and Nicole. Charlie is an ambitious theater director working hard to get his avant-garde stage vision to the wider audience of Broadway and Nicole is the burgeoning actress who became his muse and later his wife. After having a son named Henry (Azhy Robertson), the couple begins to drift apart as Nicole begins to yearn for a professional life and a sense of accomplishment that’s not directly tied to the success of her husband’s theater career. The two officially separate when Nicole decides to take an acting role in Los Angeles to star in a television pilot.

This decision turns what starts as an amicable separation into a messy divorce when the two are forced to bring in pricey attorneys to figure out how they will manage custody and living expenses, given that Charlie wants to continue living and working from New York City.

A less attentive director and a shoddier cast could let a project like this turn into over-indulgent, actorly scene-workshops writ large. Baumbach never loses sight of the tragic-comedy tone or the bigger picture of the story he’s trying to tell, while the actors meet the responsibility of driving the film’s momentum and pace.

Things that aren’t initially outlined explicitly in the dialogue are shown in recognizable behavior patterns, such as Johansson’s character constantly ceding ground to accommodate the ego of her husband and Driver’s constant fishing for adoration and approval by those around him. When the two finally bring in mediators and lawyers to negotiate the terms of their divorce, the unfiltered brunt of their schism is forced to the surface in ways that are recognizable, humorous, and genuinely painful to watch.

Laura Dern as the sometimes warm and sometimes shrewdly direct attorney Nora steals every scene that she’s in. The way she then contrasts with Charlie’s legal representation, the bullish Ray Liotta as Jay and the avuncular Alan Alda as Bert, perfectly anthropomorphizes the ids of their clients. Though this is certainly Scarlett and Adam’s film, the supporting cast members are fully realized and nestled into the implied history of this movie world.

“Marriage Story” is a raw, emotional experience, but it never wallows or settles for cheap tear-jerking manipulation. The overarching message is about the success and maturity of moving on and surviving the growing pains that come with it. Even though much of runtime depicts a couple at their most petty and cruel, this is still a love story that’s equally hilarious and heartbreaking.

Grade: A+

Cassidy Robinson is a former Idaho State University student with a master’s degree in film studies from Orange County’s Chapman University. He is currently working as a media journalist in Los Angeles, California.