Corey Stoll smirking in HBO's Scenes From a Marriage at a dinner tableImage via HBO
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Liam Gaughan
Published 20 minutes ago
Liam Gaughan is a film and TV writer at Collider. He has been writing film reviews and news coverage for ten years. Between relentlessly adding new titles to his watchlist and attending as many screenings as he can, Liam is always watching new movies and television shows.
In addition to reviewing, writing, and commentating on both new and old releases, Liam has interviewed talent such as Mark Wahlberg, Jesse Plemons, Sam Mendes, Billy Eichner, Dylan O'Brien, Luke Wilson, and B.J. Novak. Liam aims to get his spec scripts produced and currently writes short films and stage plays. He lives in Allentown, PA.
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There are multiple films directed by the great Ingmar Bergman that are considered to be among the greatest of all-time, but Scenes from a Marriage was highly influential in its unvarnished presentation of domestic life. The original miniseries, which was subsequently edited into an award-winning feature film, didn’t take a melodramatic approach to the subject of a feuding couple, and instead chose to examine brief vignettes within the lives of two people who fell in and out of love with each other. Bergman’s masterpiece has been cited as a favorite by many filmmakers, so the thought of remaking it seemed superfluous. However, HBO’s remake of Scenes from a Marriage adds a different perspective to the original material, in no small thanks to the tremendous performances by Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain.
The most brilliant creative choice that Bergman made was to confine his story to single locations, which allowed the viewer to feel trapped inside the home at the same time that the couple did. While the HBO remake from Hagai Levi retains that style, Scenes from a Marriage was modernized in order to consider the cultural changes within the perception of parenting and gender roles since the 1970s. To take such a stripped-down, intimate story and tell it with two movie stars could have felt like a betrayal of the material, but the heartbreaking chemistry between Isaac and Chastain is so strong that Scenes from a Marriage feels like an appropriate tribute to Bergman.
The HBO Miniseries 'Scenes From a Marriage' Modernizes a Cinematic Classic
Scenes from a Marriage indicates that it is repurposing the original film from the beginning by changing the nature of the exposition. In Bergman’s film, the couple is initially being interviewed about their success by a journalist, but the first episode of the HBO show opens with Jonathan Levy and Mira Phillips divulging details of their relationship to the young woman Danielle (Sunita Mani), who is gathering information for a thesis project. It is suggested that Jonathan and Mira are not equally forthcoming about the nature of their marriage, as they show a different degree of confidence in answering the questions. While Jonathan is open to discussing his political beliefs, health issues, and employment status, Mira doesn’t feel as comfortable identifying herself by strict parameters. This is brilliantly conveyed by the subtle differences in the way that the characters describe the way they first met, which suggests that they have different perceptions about the fundamentals of their relationship.
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Posts By Liam Gaughan Nov 11, 2025Scenes from a Marriage avoids being melodramatic because it explores tiny insurrections that lead to broader disagreements between the two characters. While it is not uncommon for married couples to have disagreements, the different philosophies that Jonathan and Mira have about life, work, and purpose suggest that they have fundamental opposing views that will come into conflict when they’re forced to start making more critical decisions about their future. The series brilliantly denies them the chance to prep for what that future might be when Mira is forced to reveal her pregnancy to Jonathan on a whim while they attend a dinner with their friends Peter (Corey Stoll) and Kate (Nicole Beharie). Despite putting on a positive outlook for their guests, Mira’s tearful moments of silence and Jonathan’s feelings of betrayal show that they have created a more positive guise whenever they’re in public. This essentially serves as the thesis for a show, which implies that a couple’s relationship is tested by the moments when they have no one but each other to rely on.
HBO's 'Scenes From a Marriage' Features Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain at Their Best
Oscar Isaac hugging Jessica Chastain in bed in Scenes From a MarriageImage by HBO
Creating chemistry that feels authentic is a major challenge that any romantic drama can face, and it certainly helped that Isaac and Chastain had previously played a couple in the highly underrated A24 crime drama A Most Violent Year. It’s impressive that Isaac and Chastain feel so natural with one another, as the series is only showing brief glimpses within the many years of their relationship, and leaves it up to the viewers’ imagination to fill in some of the gaps. While the show doesn’t depict moments like their engagement, the birth of children, or other highly documented moments, it examines the daily battles that they both wage in order to appease each other.
The question that the series asks is whether “fighting” for a relationship is ultimately worth it. Both characters feel strongly enough about one another that they’re willing to suffer through some uncomfortable moments, but they also begin to recognize that a loving relationship should not feel like a burden. Although such broad topics could have made the series feel overbearing, Scenes from a Marriage nicely emphasizes that it is about a specific relationship, and that its wisdom does not apply to all marriages.
The most impressive achievement within Scenes from a Marriage is that it never feels as if the series is slanted towards the perspective of either character. It's understandable why both Jonathan and Mira have felt trapped by obligations to one another, though neither character ends up feeling selfish by choosing to pursue personal happiness. It’s also the rare portrayal of a domestic split in which both partners still have affection for each other. Even if their marriage ends up crumbling, not even their nastiest fights will negate the affection that they once had for one another.
Scenes from a Marriage is not a traditional HBO drama by any stretch of the imagination, as the final moments of the finale "In the Middle of the Night, in a Dark House, Somewhere in the World" even go so far as to break the fourth wall and reveal something about the acting process that its stars went through. Even if it may ultimately serve as a piece of experimental filmmaking using the techniques of theater, Isaac and Chastain breathe so much life into the characters that it's hard to not be moved. Rather than feeling like a retread of Bergman’s classic, HBO’s Scenes from a Marriage feels like a companion piece.
Scenes From a Marriage
Like Drama Release Date 2021 - 2021-00-00 Network HBO MaxCast
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Sunita Mani
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Jessica Chastain
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Corey Stoll
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Tovah Feldshuh
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Oscar Isaac
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Jessica Chastain
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