If the walls of this Townhouse Suite at the Sunset Tower Hotel could talk, they would tell tales of happy unions and painful separations, as well as awards-season glory. Hence, the storied West Hollywood establishment, which has hosted many an Oscars party, is an altogether fitting gathering place for the talents from the new film Marriage Story.

Writer and director Noah Baumbach, 50, reached far beyond his own divorce with Jennifer Jason Leigh to craft a searing screenplay. Scarlett Johansson, 35, stars as Nicole, a longtime stage actress in her husband’s New York–based theater company who moves to Los Angeles with their son, Henry, for a TV pilot in the wake of her separation. Adam Driver, 36, plays Nicole’s husband, Charlie, a director who is accustomed to control but finds himself without any amid the divorce and child-custody process. And Laura Dern, 52, as Nicole’s nurturing-yet-fierce divorce attorney, Nora, reminds us that while a marriage might be between two people, a divorce rarely is.

The film begins with a bit of misdirection, as Nicole and Charlie list the traits they most admire about each other, which is then revealed to be an exercise for a divorce mediator. It’s the first of many unexpected scenes from the dissolution of a marriage. (Baumbach included an allusion to Ingmar Bergman’s Scenes From a Marriage, and says the storytelling style is “almost picaresque, like Candide.”) Some moments are heartbreaking: After the divorce is finalized, Nicole notices Charlie’s untied shoe and instinctively goes to tie it. Others punctuate the pain with comedic absurdity, such as the elaborately choreographed serving of divorce papers. Still others defy the doctrines of character drama, as when Charlie breaks into the pleading Stephen Sondheim song “Being Alive.” (Sample verse: “Somebody need me too much / Somebody know me too well / Somebody pull me up short / And put me through hell.”) The overwhelming effect of the movie is a sense of intimacy.

This late-October gathering has that feel too. As the director and the film’s stars take their seats to discuss the movie (in theaters now and streaming on Netflix December 6), Dern comments on her latest viewing: “Things strike me that I didn’t see or read the first time that break my heart the most.” Driver remarks on how essential it was that they were able to open up to each other during filming. “You kind of do yourself and the movie as a whole a disservice,” he says, “if you keep it to yourself, if you’re on your own private journey.” Johansson credits Baumbach’s curation of the cast. “It’s sort of like a dinner party,” she says, “and you have to figure out how all these pieces fit to make a really memorable and great night.” As she and Baumbach sip their drinks, Dern opens a bottle of club soda that explodes onto the table. “This is our first group thing,” Baumbach explains. “You’re going to get us working out the kinks.”

Alex Bhattacharji: The title, Marriage Story, raises the question: Do you feel the film is about a union or a divorce, the inevitability of separation or a statement that the story of a relationship can best, or maybe only, be understood as it’s being dismantled?