I really, really didn't want to see Marriage Story, despite the rapturous reviews and the fact that it's the work of Noah Baumbach, one of the most interesting writer-directors in America. It turns out I'm not alone. People in happy marriages tell me they don't want to see it because they fear exposure to its portrayal of a marriage's end would work like exposing oneself to a norovirus. People in not-so-happy marriages don't seem to want to see it either because they fear it will push them down a path they are trying to avoid. And divorced people say they have PTSD from what they went through splitting up and don't need to relive the worst time in their lives.
Well, I was wrong and so are all of them. In fact, Marriage Story is nothing less than a masterpiece—the best American movie...