In which Hunter Harris attempts to exorcise the movie quotes haunting her brain.
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Ray Liotta entersMarriage Storywith a price tag: Heres the fact, Jack.
I charge $950 an hour.
If you have a stupid question, you call Ted.
Charlie thinks hes having one kind of divorce.
You were married here in L.A.?
Your son was born out here?
Charlie, maroon little Moleskine in his erudite hands, says yes to both.
Charlie is, at turns, incredulous and offended.
That all ends once he sits under the harsh overhead light of Jays office.
Charlie wants to go back to New York, he cries out, and so does his son!
Hes just telling you what you want to hear.
And trust me, hes telling her the opposite.
If I had my way,Marriage Storywould be only about the lawyers.
The movie means to show how impersonal divorce is, how itsanti-intimate.
Love, marriage, betrayal, neglect, sized down to serif font: Case #BD 646-058.
Hes not a villain, just a predator smelling blood.
When introduced, Charlie dismisses him as a bad guy, but why?
Even the kid is unreliable.
Marriage is a union between two people; divorce is deal-making between a half-dozen.
How can Charlie hire this guy, who isnt even embarrassed he didnt remember his kids name?
Cue Ted from the corner: Which is still crazy.
Charlie cries out to Nicole.
Charlie and Nicole talk one way; their lawyers talk another.
Charlie hires and fires a nice lawyer and buys back the piranha.
(I needed my own asshole, he justifies to his wife afterward.)
The movies courtroom scene, in which Liotta and Dern face off, is entirely their own.
A little history, Jay begins.
Hes a well-regarded up-and-coming director of the avant-garde.
And shes known as the girl in that college sex movie who takes her top off.
The way that first phrase sticks in my brain!
The way I still think about it all these years later: a well-regarded up-and-coming director of the avant-garde.
Liotta is almost pious in the line reading: director of the avant-garde.
This is the gravelly voice-over of Henry Hill speaking dutifully about downtown theater!
I laugh every time.
A few scenes earlier, Jay basically shrugged when Charlie mentioned hed directed plays Off Broadway.
Marriage Storys lawyers are so vibrantly rendered in this scene.
She chose Laura Dern, the only good nepotism baby!
He knows Charlie does hate him and will hate him.
Noras vocabulary includesslut-shaming, and she says genius was an intangible asset built during the marriage.
Jay speaks in slow, measured tones and stands up to point emphatically, sits down seething.
A lot of Liotta performances operate on the edge; it could go either way with this guy.
He was an everyman inGoodfellaswho adjusted his posture, his brightness, his deference or defenses to the moment.
He wasSomething Wilds gleeful psycho.
All on the behalf of a director of the avant-garde.
