"Just pretend to be normal": A Comedy By Any Other Name, Marriage Story vs Little Miss Sunshine

When I think about the 2009 now-cult classic Little Miss Sunshine (LMS), I think of dark comedy, but if you research the film, viewers and critics think of it as a road movie, a comedy or a drama. In a similar fashion, when I think of 2019’s critically acclaimed Marriage Story (MS), I expect descriptions like drama and romantic drama, but comedy and comedy-drama are the descriptions used.

LMS is one of those few films that manages to pull off a heartfelt seriousness and sharp genuine humour. At the same time, it doesn’t mock the characters or what they are going through. The balance between the two emotions is managed perfectly.

Once I had watched MS, I had no desire to watch it again. Nothing drew me back to it and the only reason I have seen it twice is for the purposes of this blog. I saw very little humour in MS. I don’t know what it was trying to be. I don’t know who I was supposed to root for or empathise with. For me, MS did not know what kind of film it was or what it wanted to say. Both films have similar genre descriptions, yet what makes me return to one time and time again and never want to watch the other again?

Looking at MS, the film’s tagline reads: “a compassionate look at a marriage coming apart and a family staying together”. I think this is where we can start to see the confusion present in the film. For me, this tagline is a total contradiction of what the film is about; the tagline is what it wanted to present, but it did not manage to do so.

MS starts off suggesting to the viewer that it is a two-sided story, but, as the film goes on, we realise that we are not going to get that. One character, Nicole, gets much more in-depth exploration than the husband she is divorcing, Charlie. I don’t see how a story about marriage or divorce can be compassionate when only one side is truly explored in depth. Both characters are going through the same thing, so why are their motives and emotions not explored to the same level?

Given MS’s length, I expected there to be much more humour. There is plenty of room for it and it could have punctuated some of the film’s more difficult moments because (believe me) it’s full of them. The funniest moments are mostly about Charlie, particularly when he is being served his divorce papers or when he has a visit from the most awkward social worker of all time. If anything, this film shows the darkest parts of divorce; how people who once loved each other turn on each other in order to ‘win’. While this is a valid representation for a film, it is described as a comedy with the intention of presenting a hopeful message.

I found the film to be terribly sad. Charlie believed the separation will be handled between them and Nicole and the family will continue to live in the same city, but the rug is totally pulled from under him. Nicole automatically gets what she wants, but Charlie loses everything and has to fight the most. Charlie is set up as a nice guy, so it seems unreasonable for Nicole to divorce him. Nicole seems like a driven and ambitious woman who wants more from life. Why couldn’t this be her reasoning? The film rather clumsily throws in the fact that Charlie has cheated as a more justifiable reason for divorce. This feels cliched and rushed and frankly goes against his character.

I think this is a large part of the film’s issue; no character is terribly likeable. This, combined with a severe lack of humour, just makes for a bleak film. How can a film be sympathetic where none of the characters are likeable enough to sympathise with? Nicole is a very confusing character. Does she enjoy being a mother or is she tired of her husband’s success? Yet she is also incredibly successful, just not as a director, but rather as an actress, so is she jealous of her husband’s career rather than succeed? And is this worth her splitting up her family? It is so hard to understand her motivation. By the end of the film, she is a director and her new boyfriend seems immature, to say the least. Is her motivation dominance? Or envy? I am still not sure.

MS is about winning and losing. When it becomes about winning and losing, how can a family stay together? Caroline’s son now lives five and a half hours away by plane. His life will never be the same again. The film’s final scenes are heartbreaking. Charlie walks behind what was once his family in their matching Halloween costumes while he has a sheet over his head. He is no longer a part of his family. He is the only character that is truly alone. I see no compassion in that.

If anything, LMS has bleaker narratives: suicide, death, the death of hope, the realities of growing up, body image as well as a failing marriage. The film gives these topics the space to be developed and treats them seriously, yet also gives space for humour to punctuate the sadness so the viewer is never overwhelmed and remains engaged.

Some examples of this great sense of humour are the fact that a group of depressed and troubled people are driving a yellow Volkswagen Beetle, that the clutch goes and they need to push it to start every time, and the horn gets jammed on a constant beep as well as the totally bizarre world of child beauty pageants.

It’s not just the film’s use of humour that separates it from MS; it’s the fact that every character has a redeeming quality to them, even Richard, who does and says things that make you want to hate him, but you can’t because you can see that everything he does is for his family, to give them more, to give them a better life, to worry for them. His relentless drive and ambition is admirable.

Unlike MS, which claims to be about a family staying together, in LMS they actually do stay together because everything they do is for each other. Even Dwayne, the sullen teenager, does what he can to help his little sister. Despite their own issues, and sometimes their selfishness, they are committed to each other and this shines throughout the entire film. Every character’s struggle is shown, so it is easy to understand their motivations, along with their poorer qualities, but their redemption is also shown often using humour. It does what MS could not achieve.

MS ends after a battle with a clear victor and loser. It ends on a defeated, hopeless note, whereas LMS starts off with little hope, but everyone has won something.