SCENES AFTER A MARRIAGE Review: Now the Heartbreak Begins

When two people decide to separate, it's never easy.

Scenes After a Marriage
The series begins streaming Thursday, January 29 through Thursday, February 19, exclusively on Viaplay, in the U.S., via Amazon's page and, in Canada, via Rogers East.

Perhaps it's my bias as a U.S. resident, but I can't imagine anyone in the Swedish filmloving community who is not aware of Ingmar Bergman's made for television mini-series Scenes from a Marriage (1973), which dissected a decade within a tempestuous relationship. (It was later edited into a version that played to critical acclaim in North American movie theaters.)

Generations come and go, of course; in the U.S., we saw premium cabler HBO make a valiant attempt at an updated version of the series, starring Jessica Chastain and Oscar Isaac, in 2021. Now, Scenes After a Marriage (orig. Scener efter ett äktenskap) comes to streaming service ViaPlay from screenwriter Veronica Zacco (The Bridge, Top Dog, Barracuda Queens) and co-creators Kristoffer Jönsson (Thunder in My Heart, Honour) and Anders Hazelius (Thin Blue Line, Thunder in My Heart, Inner Circle), the latter of whom directs all eight episodes of a series that sounds like a footnote but lands with dramatic thunder and lightning.

The series begins in the immediate aftermath of a decision to separate by Lovis (Eva Rose) and Kian (Ardalan Esmaili) after seven years of marriage. As the first episode develops, we learn that they are meeting at a roadside restaurant near the border of their native Sweden and Denmark because Kian accepted a job at a new restaurant in Copenhagen, and this is the 'transfer point,' where they have agreed to meet so they can alternate weeks with their rambunctious young children.

(Reinforcing the pain, the first episode concludes with "Dream Baby Dream," a haunting song by Suicide that I'd not heard in years.)

The wounds from their separation are still fresh, and have not even begun to heal. Their raw pain quickly escalates into one fiery argument after another, to the dismay of the restaurant waiter Bobby (Danny Saucedo) and their children, waiting outside but observing them through the plate-glass windows.

Lovis has filed the divorce papers, but Kian has not yet signed them, convincing Lovis to wait three months until Christmastime before they end their marriage. Each episode revolves around the 'transfer point' meetings as the weeks progress, and each finds the couple's relationship more and more strained, stretching out towards a permanent breaking point.

But they're not quite there yet. Since she initiated the divorce proceedings, Lovis obviously has been brewing over her unhappiness for some time, as Kian points out, claiming that it never crossed his mind, and that he needs time to process it, as it were. In each episode, their conversations reveal their evolving state of mind. Their time away from each other allows them space to evaluate what each one expected in the first place, and why or if those expectations have not been met.

Through the empathetic writing and the sharply-tuned performances, flashes of their romantic chemistry, their long friendship, and their shared love for their children keep passing before their eyes. They can't deny that they once shared strong feelings for each other, that they loved one another, that they wanted to start a family and live together until the end of their lives.

Occasionally funny -- because funny things still happen, even if a couple is breaking up -- and frequently furiously angry, Scenes After a Marriage feels like the couple is ripping the bandages off very deep wounds. All they can think about, and argue about, and yell and scream about, is the pain that has seared deep into their psyches.

It's a good thing that each episode runs only about 18 minutes. Any more, and the pain would be too much.

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