Scenes from a Marriage

It’s fitting that the best promotion for the approaching premiere of HBO’s Scenes From A Marriage was a seemingly candid exchange between its stars. The slow-motion clip, which went viral, shows Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac sharing an electric(-looking) moment on the red carpet at the Venice International Film Festival. The reason it’s so fitting is that this is a series that runs almost entirely on how much you want to watch these two very good actors work together, in scene after scene, with little to distract from their work.The original Scenes From A Marriage miniseries aired on Swedish television in 1973.Scenes from a Marriage Season 1 Download

Written and directed by Ingmar Bergman, it told the story of a couple whose marriage crumbles over the course of several years. It was later condensed into a feature film released around the world.In this five-episode version, created and written by Hagai Levi, Isaac and Chastain play Jonathan and Mira, who are still together when the series begins. He’s a philosophy professor and she’s a tech executive, and they have a little daughter they both love. \

Not long after we meet them, their marriage starts to disintegrate. They become involved with other people, there are old resentments, and there are constant shifts as to which of them, if either one, wants to save the relationship. That’s the story, really.What Scenes From A Marriage feels like, more than anything, is a bare-bones acting exercise. It has a limited supporting cast (Corey Stoll and Nicole Beharie play a couple Jonathan and Mira are friends with in the first episode, and it’s the most you’ll see of anyone else) and it takes place almost entirely in their home. The series is cramped and stressful, despite — or because of? — how much of it is just two people talking (and fighting).