Marriage Story | 2019 | R | – 4.4.8

Why is “Marriage Story” rated R? The MPAA rating has been assigned for “language throughout and sexual references.” The Kids-In-Mind.com evaluation includes an implied sex scene in a car, a couple of kissing scenes, and several cleavage revealing outfits; many scenes of bitter arguments between a husband and his wife as they go through a divorce, discussions of the legal process of divorce and child custody, discussions of drug use and alcohol consumption, and about 38 F-words and other strong language. Read our parents’ guide below for details on sexual content, violence & strong language.”

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When a marriage disintegrates the couple (Scarlett Johansson and Adam Driver) struggles to deal with the logistics of trying to maintain a close relationship with their young son despite now leading separate lives, very far away from each other. Also with Merritt Wever, Laura Dern, Wallace Shawn, Ray Liotta, Alan Alda and Julie Hagerty. Directed by Noah Baumbach. A few lines of dialogue are spoken in Spanish without translation. [Running Time: 2:16]

Marriage Story SEX/NUDITY 4

 – A man and woman kiss and moan in a car and the woman tells the man that she only wants him to stimulate her digitally and they continue to kiss (the scene ends).
► A man and woman kiss in greeting. A woman leans over to speak to a man in a bar scene and she touches his knee; his wife from across the room sees this and leaves the gathering. A man kisses a woman on the cheek. A man and woman hug. A man kisses a woman on the head.
► A woman asks a man if she can come over and he declines; they talk about having had sex before, while he was married. A woman says that she suspects that her husband slept with another woman. A woman makes a comment about her mother walking in on her father having sex with another man. A man tells another man, “Have sex with as many people as possible.” Someone says, “I was raised by two mothers.” A woman talks about “Not being in love anymore.” A woman talks about having been engaged to another man when she met her husband. A reference is made to the story line of a play being about “sex trafficking in space.”
► A young woman on a TV screen lifts her top to reveal her bare abdomen and we understand that she also reveals her breasts (we do not see them). A woman wears low-cut dresses that reveal deep cleavage in several scenes, throughout the movie. Several women wear low-cut tops that reveal cleavage in a bar scene. A teen girl babysitting fastens her belt when a man and woman return home (we see no flesh). A woman gets out of bed and we see her wearing a T-shirt and underwear (her bare legs to the hips are seen briefly). A man is shirtless with a towel wrapped around his shoulders while he is having a haircut (we see part of his bare chest and abdomen).

Marriage Story VIOLENCE/GORE 4

 – A man accidentally cuts his arm deeply with a pocketknife; blood seeps from the wound and onto his shirt, he smears some blood on a door while trying to open it, and he frantically tries to bandage it before collapsing on the floor. A husband and his wife argue bitterly and the man punches a wall (we see the plaster dented); the man yells very closely to the woman’s face and tells her that he wishes that she would get sick, and then get hit by a car and die.
► A man and woman argue briefly in a mediation office while going through a separation; the woman becomes angry and storms out of the office. A man yells at his young son and pulls on his arm to get him into a car. A man argues with his son and his estranged wife about a Halloween costume for the boy. A man yells about divorce proceedings. A woman yells and gestures angrily while a man listens (we do not hear what she is yelling about). A man and a woman, separately, yell in frustration while playing Monopoly with their young son. A woman says that divorce proceedings will be like a street fight.
► A woman wakes up her adult daughter and grandson by opening curtains in their room and singing a religious tune; she complains and tells her that she needs to get up at a specific time while she is living under her roof. A man bumps his head on a cabinet door (there are no injuries). We see that a woman is messy and leaves cabinets open, clothes on floors, etc. A woman talks about serving her husband with divorce papers. A man takes his young son trick-or-treating in Los Angeles and no one opens their doors; the boy comes home with just a few pieces of candy and a lighter.
► A woman refers to her “moods.” A woman says that a man, “Disappears into his own world.” A woman says of a man, “He cries easily.” A woman yells about having a “dead, gay husband.” A woman talks about “feeling dead.” A husband and his wife talk about their divorce in several scenes. During divorce proceedings, a man says that he feels like a criminal. We hear about rolling blackouts in a part of California.
► A woman stumbles on stairs and says that she had too much to drink. A woman with food stuck in her teeth picks at it to remove it. A boy drops his hamburger on the ground and his father picks it up saying that he will eat it himself.

Marriage Story LANGUAGE 8

 – About 38 F-words and its derivatives, 11 sexual references, 17 scatological terms (5 mild), 8 anatomical terms, 8 mild obscenities, name-calling (horrible, bossy, ugly, terrible, dumb, villain, victim, joyless, liar, criminal, crazy, maladjusted, maddening, weird, guilty, angry, street fight, suffocating, gross, slob, joyless, stubborn, stupid, flirty, honey, pathetic, selfish, hack, narcissist, insane, sad), exclamations (are you kidding me), 4 religious profanities (GD), 8 religious exclamations (e.g. God, Jesus, God Willing, Oh God, God Is The Father, God Isn’t There). | profanity glossary |

Marriage Story SUBSTANCE USE

 – A man is asked if his wife did drugs, a woman says that she smoked marijuana sometimes and that she snorted coke once at a party, and a man takes two tablets (they are not identified). A woman says that a man had “alcohol and some violence in his childhood,” people in a bar drink alcohol, three women drink wine in a home, people in a bar drink beer and wine, a woman says that she had too much to drink, a lawyer talks about a woman’s drinking in a courtroom, a woman says that her parents were probably drunk all the time when she was a child, a man takes a drink from a beer, women drink from glasses of champagne, a man drinks a glass of wine, and a man and a woman drink glasses of scotch. A man smokes a cigarette on a sidewalk outside a laundromat.

Marriage Story DISCUSSION TOPICS

 – Love, relationships, parenting, divorce, custody battles, competitiveness, truth, gas lighting, reputations, failure, extra-marital affairs, hacking emails, precedent, poisoning the well, hate, self-pity, vegetarianism, super-bugs, Broadway, neglect, absent fathers, hope, talent, genius, co-sleeping, lack of confidence, a MacArthur Grant.

Marriage Story MESSAGE

 – Sometimes relationships end badly and it takes work to keep things together when children are involved.