The Squid And The Whale Movie
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Storyline
TAGLINES
Joint Custody Blows.
The patriarch (Jeff Daniels) of an eccentric Brooklyn family claims to once have been a great novelist, but he has settled into a teaching job. When his wife (Laura Linney) discovers a writing talent of her own, jealousy divides the family, leaving two teenage sons to forge new relationships with their parents. Linney's character begins dating her younger son's tennis coach. Meanwhile, Daniels' character has an affair with the student his older son is pursuing.
| Owen Kline | Frank Berkman |
| Jeff Daniels | Bernard Berkman |
| Laura Linney | Joan Berkman |
| Jesse Eisenberg | Walt Berkman |
| William Baldwin | Ivan |
| David Benger | Carl |
| Anna Paquin | Lili |
| Ben Schrank | Graduate Student |
| Noah Baumbach |
7.70 out of 10 (10777 votes)
Visitor Reviews
Realistic tale of a family on the brink of breaking up
posted on 10 Aug 2009The strains and hassles of a family breaking up have never been more realistically portrayed than in this film, set in a middle class Brooklyn neighborhood in the early 1980s. The Berkman marriage had been fraying for several years. Bernard (Jeff Daniels) once wrote a good novel, he claims, and aspired to literary greatness, before the winds of creativity died down, leaving the sails of his writer's vessel perpetually slack.Bernie turned to teaching creative writing to college students to put bread on the table, but at mid-life he is a bitter fellow, a man who knows that he's in the doldrums, and that he has fallen way short of his dreams. His malaise intensifies when his wife, Joan (Laura Linney), begins to show some serious literary chops of her own: she's close to finishing a novel and getting short pieces published in places like The New Yorker magazine. The couple have two sons, teen Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and pre-teen Frank (Owen Kline).The biggest problem in the family is that along with failure, and no doubt largely because of it, Bernie has become a world-class jerk: hypercritical, bombastic, self-serving to a fault. No one ever gave a better demonstration of narcissistic self-inflation to sooth the pain of deep personal disappointment. With the marriage on a crash course, an inevitable separation occurs and Bernie packs off down the road to a rental house.Bernie's become so offensive that it's amazing that anybody sides with him, but son Walt strongly aligns himself with Dad. Perhaps Walt has bought into Bernie's illusions of his own grandeur, or maybe it's that, at mid-adolescence, Walt just needs to have a father to believe in. The younger Frank ostensibly is the family member most emotionally devastated by the separation and he strongly sides with his Mom.Among other unsavory aspects of family dissolution, the harsh inequities wrought upon kids by joint custody arrangements is vividly depicted, with its attendant feeling that the kids really are in custody, because, like inmates, Walt and Frank, are shuttled around having no say at all in the matter, no control over the regular forced marches, back and forth, between two households, and all in the name of love.Writer-director Noah Baumbach's earlier screenplay, co-written with Wes Anderson, for "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou," was awash in deadpan (and, I thought, also deadening) ironies. In contrast, "Squid" is delivered from the heart without irony, disclosing nuanced sentiments that ring true. All four players give solid turns, as does William Baldwin as Ivan, a tennis coach who cozies up to Joan along the way.Critics say that Jeff Daniels' performance is his best ever, and it may be true. But the most touchingly genuine turn is offered by young Owen Kline. His Frank emerges fully for us, evincing the emotions and conveying the epitome of tragic consequences when a family comes apart at the seams. My rating: 8/10 (B+). (Seen on 11/17/05). If you'd like to read more of my reviews, send me a message for directions to my websites.
That tennis game and the cat and Hey You.
posted on 02 Aug 2009The thing I found really amazing about this movie is that probably less than two minutes into this film and all the characters were drawn for you. Extremely good direction. The conflict between the parents, the "sides" the brothers took, the class structure at work.I loved the addition of the cat to the story line. No one ever cuddled with it or talked to it or anything, but it was so central to the conflict with this family. I laughed out loud when his parents ask him whether he wrote that song. This film was supposed to have taken place in 1986, and Pink Floyd The Wall was still pretty huge (The album came out in 1979 and the movie in 1982, and the song was all over classic rock radio). It is hilarious out of touch and provincial the academic family is that they have no clue about "Hey You."
Very good writing undermined by lesser direction.
posted on 29 Jul 2009After the release of The Life Aquatic, there was an article released (I forget by who) about the lessened effect of it over Anderson's other works. One thing the writer explored was Noah Baumbach's relationship to Wes Anderson and how different it is from Owen Wilson's relationship. Owen Wilson and Wes Anderson grew up together as equals, thus could compliment each other's skills for a well-rounded writing experience. Baumbach is too impressed with Anderson, becoming something of a yes-man and not being able to recognize the areas of weakness.This shows even more so in The Squid and the Whale, though to a different (and self-reflexively comic) degree. Noah Baumbach has something to say about his childhood experience of his parent's divorce. Stuck to his aggressively intellectual (to hide deep insecurity) father during a divorce, Noah shows a character trapped in unintellectual intellectualism, quoting and reciting platitudes without thinking for himself. The drama of the film is his character's eventual realization that he needs to break away from that thought process and begin thinking for himself.In terms of the writing, it's amazing, and the performances help. For all necessary terms of Baumbach's creativity and mood, this film is an excellent visualization and definitely shows his talent.But there's a problem: Wes Anderson. The production style of this film is a lot like Anderson's, the sort of perpendicular pastel colors of the set and the long, deep focus lens. Baumbach himself, however, chooses to use mostly a hand-held camera effect, making a disorganized camera try to exist amidst a completely organized space. The result is a breakdown of style amidst the performances. Either Baumbach needs to relax a little on Anderson's production design and figure out how he wants to create space himself... or he needs to buy himself a dolly. Now I love Anderson's work a lot, but for the purposes of Baumbach's own visualization and imagination I wish he'd drop everything he learned from Anderson and start figuring out how to make a film himself. In fact, considering some of the editing of this film, he might need a little help on craft-work instead of style.It's a real shame that this film is cluttered by Anderson's inspiration because for one thing, the writing is amazing and definitely shows Baumbach's skill on that level, and for another now it feels like Baumbach has adopted Anderson as a new father figure, blindly following his conceits without figuring out how to craft an idea himself. That is a very unfortunate thing to find in a film about coming-of-age out of dependency to his father's ideas (someone else here mentioned patricide). I'm not a big fan of deconstructive criticism, but this film's structure literally undermines its own themes.Of course really, most people don't really care about that, even if they notice. For that reason, this isn't a "bad" film by any means. Its writing and its characters and its performances are so awesome that often one doesn't even have the time to notice that the camera is starting to shake out of control. On a literate level, this movie is above and beyond a lot of other stuff out there.--PolarisDiB
Ignorance is bliss
posted on 29 Jul 2009The "Squid and the Whale" is about two young boys' parents getting split up, and how they deal with it.The "Squid and the Whale" is important to me for one particular reason. My parents divorced once when I was very young, and then again when I was 18. Those years were filled with lots of aggression, yelling and hate.In "The Squid and the Whale", the parents are both writers with PhD's. They were very reserved in their arguments, and didn't let their emotions get the best of them. The boys had no idea that their parents were having trouble. It was the sort of separation that I wish I had gone through.
Very Strange, But Very Very Good
posted on 29 Jul 2009like i said its very strange, but its very very good, just like any movie Wes Andersen is apart of , like the royal tenebaums, life aquatic with Steve zissou, but they are all good. the acting is great and the movie is never boring, it seemed like its longer than its supposed to, but definitely never boring, sometimes too strange and pointless and bizarre, like the scenes where the youngest boy frank (owen Kline)masturbates in a library and spreads semen on a bookshelf, and a few others, but especially Jeff Daniels is very good who plays the father, laura linney as the mother, Jesse eisenberg as Walt, and William Baldwin as Ivan, which all did a very good job, so if you haven't seen this i strongly recommend you do
Creepy parents not worth viewing
posted on 25 Jul 2009The acting was very good. The production was good. The story told was simply uninteresting and more off-putting than engaging. Jeff Daniels played his part so well that you just wanted to slap the creep. The mother character is even more reprehensible. These are people I would rather not know let alone invite into my living room. The only redeeming factor of this film is that it may be gratifying to parents watching it that are not screwing up their children as much as the parents in this movie were. If you have teenagers, definitely do not rent this movie. While some R rated movies can be watched by older teenagers with your supervision, this is definitely not one of them!
Masterfully written, fabulously acted
posted on 23 Jul 2009As a writer myself, key words always come to my mind every time I sit down to write: Write what you know. While some screenwriters choose to write disastrous screenplays on subjects they know absolutely nothing about, others actually take the time to write what they actually do know. Noah Baumbach, an obvious disciple of Wes Anderson, falls into the second category.In his semi-autobiographical film, Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney star as Bernard and Joan Berkman. They have PhD's, and raise their two sons Walt and Frank (Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline) in Brooklyn. Right from the start, the audience understands that there are problems within Bernard and Joan's marriage. Soon after, they decide to separate, but share joint custody of the kids. From here, the story goes into detail as to the effects their split has on the four of them.And while the films comes in at a brisk 81 minutes, not one moment is wasted. Baumbach has created a fabulous ode to his childhood, and puts as much emphasis on the breakup of the family unit as possible. Through the fighting, and the siding of the children, we really get an authentic sense of what it really is like to go through the destruction of the family unit, whether or not the audience has felt the same effects. The writing is bittersweet and smart, and the progression of the story is just phenomenal. It has a few comedic moments, but for the most part, the film is a wonderfully poignant drama. Whether he uses homages to other works, metaphors for other things, or if he just goes right for original elements, Baumbach is right at the top of the game. I have yet to see his other works (other than his co-written The Life Aquatic with Steve Zizzou), but after viewing this, I really have the desire to go and pick them right up.The acting is excellent, and a real testament to the great casting. Daniels is perfect in his role as Bernard, a elicit and sarcastic snob to the very end. His perfection is only complemented by Linney's conflicted Joan. The two adults play off each other perfectly, and are absolutely fabulous in their roles. Unfortunately though, they are shown up totally by Eisenberg and Kline as the children. If the two adults played off each other great, than these two play off each other even better. These two young stars play their roles with just the right bit of naivety, and just the right bit of innocence and corruption, that you really feel heartbroken for what happens to them throughout the film. While sex comes up as a frequent theme, another important theme is that of growing up, and totally understanding the faults of their parents. Both of them mature throughout the entire film, and you can literally see the development of these two wonderful characters as the film unravels. Supporting turns from William Baldwin, Anna Paquin and the definite up-and-comer Halley Feiffer do not go unnoticed, and make the performances of the main cast that much better.If these is anything I can see wrong with the film, it is that it seems a little too Anderson-esquire for it's own good. It has many original feeling moments, and is an absolute must-see film, but it just really feels like the Anderson feel has rubbed off a little too much on Baumbach. Whether this is a bad thing or not, is totally up to the viewer, but it would have been nicer to see the film be able to stand on its own away from Anderson's work. Another unnecessarily bad thing is the unrewarding finale. It fits in, but just does not feel totally right for the film, and takes away slightly from the rest of the work as a whole. The finale does end at just the right moment however, so the film never overstays its welcome, even if it feels so very short.In the end, Baumbach has created a masterpiece with this seminal coming-of-age story. The characters, the story and the acting are all top notch, and only a few minuscule faults prevent it from being even better than it is. A must-see film for everyone.9/10.
Not stupid. Not subtle. Superb.
posted on 17 Jul 2009I was lucky to see this film at the Savannah Film Festival and haven't met anyone disappointed with it. To call this film a comedy, in this day, would be to infer that it has silly characters and cheap gags, yet makes you laugh. To call it a Wes Anderson piece would be infer that the humor would be subtle, yet makes you laugh. This film is different does not come off as silly or dry, the characters are fairly dramatic, and when they clash the movie is at its funniest. Superb acting and writing make for a hilarious movie that doesn't make you feel dumber because you watched it nor dumb because you didn't get. And it holds true without copping out to cliché movie patterns.
Casting oddity
posted on 17 Jul 2009I find it odd that the role of the younger son, who is supposedly seen spreading his semen around the library shelves after masturbating, is played by a child who is clearly prepubescent and not old enough to produce semen. It seems to be a clear error in casting. Otherwise, it is an interesting movie, almost haunting at times, almost comical at others. Profanity must be rampant in the Kevin Kline/Phoebe Cates household, judging from the trash mouth of "Frank," played by Owen Kline. As a father, I'm not sure if I would have allowed my son to play this role. Perhaps people committed to appearing in movies will do anything to get a role, or allow their children to appear in just about any role just for the money, or the publicity.
Bizarrely interesting, yet incomplete ...
posted on 09 Jul 2009This movie was a kind of a half-finished drama about kids coping with their parent's divorce. The characters are unusually strange and are somehow engaging enough to make the movie above-average.Basically, this is the story of a family that is going through a divorce. The two parents are highly literate PhD writers and the two kids are young, literate boys. There are no stereotypic screaming matches or scheming. The movie focuses on how the boys are deeply affected by the situation.Because this is a movie of fairly literate people, it's slightly more interesting than the usual group of characters one normally sees on screen. The acting is pretty decent too. The only problem is that the story is never very interesting. Furthermore, after watching the movie, I felt like part of the story was missing.It's a decent movie, but not good enough for someone go out of their way to watch it.
Good, but very up-front
posted on 07 Jul 2009I very much enjoyed this movie. It was produced by Wes Anderson, and Anderson had a hand in the early development of the script by Noah Baumbach. It really shows in the amazing script... if I didn't know any better, I would have thought that Wes created the whole movie. Its portrayal of divorce hits ridiculously close to home for many American kids. A couple of my friends were almost reduced to tears because they saw parallels in their own lives. Its very emotional.The Squid and the Whale also portrays very frank sexual content, which, while it threw me for a loop at first, i found right in vein with the rest of the up-front rendering of middle 80s divorce.ultimately good, you should see it, but be prepared for some weirdness to go along with great scriptwork.
The Squid sucks and the Whale blows
posted on 05 Jul 2009***** SPOILERS AHEAD ****** (But reading them can save you time and money!) IMDb voters: Are you crazy! Gone with the Wind by any account one of the most important and magnificent films in history, you rate as 7.9 but the meandering, poorly-written and dated schlock called The Squid and the Whale gets 8.0! Are you crazy?!The story of a family which is breaking apart, with the parents having joint custody over their two children, Frank and Walt, which could be the basis for an excellent film.Instead, be prepared for 80 of the most painful minutes you've spent in a theater. There's not a single sympathetic character. Everyone lies and manipulates each other and acts out their angst without regard for anyone else. Young Frank drinks and cusses like a sailor (which no one tries to correct), and smears semen in public places; high-schooler Walt plagiarizes music and adopts his father's pretensions; and the parents fight with each other and the kids for "their" nights, like five-year-olds playing marbles.Jeff Bridges is memorable for his performance as the father, Bernie, by far the least sympathetic character. Bernard is an aging writer who's lost his inspiration and is taking out his frustration on the world, contemptuous dismissing his wife, his younger son's tennis ambitions, his older sons' girlfriend, and books and people left and right. He's so vile that he encourages his son to use women for pleasure and ditch his intelligent and sensitive girlfriend because she's not one he would "go after."There is no ending: the film feels like an ensemble piece for the most part, but towards the last fifteen minutes unexpectedly seems to choose Walt as the protagonist. What happens? We learn when he was younger, he was frightened by a diorama of a squid and a whale fighting!He goes back to museum, visits the diorama and voila!--the movie ends and all the other threads are suddenly dropped like dead weight. This is the closest thing to a redeeming point it has--it refuses to go on in search of a story once it realizes it never had one.
A convincing and engaging script makes for a wonderfully bleak and witty film about a family breakdown
posted on 19 Jun 2009Walt and Frank are two brothers who live with their literary parents in Brooklyn. Their comparatively normal world is disrupted when their parents decide to divorce, with Joan breaking free of the joyless and intellectually condescending Bernard. With the boys split between two houses for half of each week they both start acting up in their own ways as their parents undergo anything but a civil split.Reading my plot summary makes this sound like a stupid film and, on reflection I have probably done it a great disservice by making out like it is very simple story. However my failure to put the plot into a neat box is much to do with the free nature of the narrative. Based, as it is, on personal reflection, Baumbach's film is more about the characters in a certain period than about a start, middle and end. Fortunately this doesn't really affect how good a film it is because the characters and their intertwining natures are very well written and effortlessly carries it on. It is hard to describe without seeing the film but the script is a joy because of how you can see flaws and personality traits carried down to the generation below. Some of the behaviour is extreme and unexplained but then I suppose that is what life is like. Some viewers will bemoan the fact that "nothing happens", however for those willing to forgo a car crash for one movie then this is a wonderfully witty human drama.The script gives the cast much to work with and none of them disappoint. Daniels is superb and gets the father just right – convincing me that he is a man unaware of his failings and of his effect on others (which of course he is). He has a "chemistry" with Linney as well which convinces that they are indeed a couple that have fallen apart years before the physical separation came. She is almost as good but not given the character to the same extent as he was. Eisenberg leads the film well and he does very well to hold his character together – of course the script is there for him but his delivery is still impressive. Kline is good but is helped by having a comparatively simple "flip-out" to deliver, although this should not downplay how good he is.Overall then this is a great film that engages thanks to a great script from Baumbach (who also directs with unobtrusive style). The cast take to it with aplomb and the result is a great character piece around the breakdown of a marriage that is convincing with very strong characters and relationships. A great little film.
Amazing- Loved every second of it
posted on 17 Jun 2009For me this movie ranks right up there with dysfucntional family dramas like The Ice Storm and Ordianry People. It somehow amazingly balances the serious tone and subject matter with a ton of humor. Almost every scene has an awkward subtle tension to it. So many of kids seeing their parents for the first time as people, who they really are, and involved in sex. It was so honest and real. Highly, highly recommend this for anyone who is into serious drama and excellent writing. But, this one is not heavy or depressing at all. It is written so perfectly that you are laughing ar half of the comments while recognizing how serious and sad they are. I've rarely seen a film so effectively balance these tones.
Overlooked, if underlong, gem of a film
posted on 03 Jun 2009I had four main impressions of this film on leaving the theater:1) Jeff Daniels deserves an Oscar nomination, if not the trophy, for his performance as the manipulative and depressed divorcée. 2) The Director is well grounded in the Wes Anderson school of film-making. The New York in this film, while a little older, feels similar to that of The Royal Tenenmbaums. His characters, however, are more real than Anderson's. 3) This movie made me grateful that my parents stayed together, despite tough times. 4) The film ended too soon.This last point was a sticky one for me. Not that all tensions need to be resolved, but there were still a few open plot points at the end. You'd have thought that after leaving the 12 year old home for the weekend, by accident, and having him give himself alcohol poisoning, that they would have made some reference to it later. Great performances from everyone involved. Shout-out to Billy Baldwin for getting cast in this top-notch film.
A disappointment if you're expecting something else....
posted on 28 May 2009On of my favorite activities is to get dinner ready, pour a glass of wine (keep the bottle nearby)and start a movie I have no prior knowledge of.The majority of the time this planned activity works out great. Last night though, I was incredibly disappointed in TSTW.Now I may be a "Phillistine" only in comparison to some that really delve into a movie about hidden meanings and "sub plot outlines", but I consider myself pretty "middle of the road" when it comes to entertainment.I guess if you have been through a divorce as a parent or child, this film may mean a bit more, otherwise, it is depressing, slow moving, and pretty disgusting whereas Character morality is concerned.I'm more disappointed that I spent the time to stay up late and watch this.All four of the primary characters have serious emotional / psychological problems that just continue to manifest themselves throughout the film. In addition, it would have been nice to see how the kids turned out as adults and if they were ever able to come to terms with the events that took place.
rich portrayal of a family in crisis
posted on 14 May 2009Using his own adolescent experiences as his source of inspiration, writer/director Noah Baumbach turns "The Squid and the Whale" into a searing, uncompromising look at the devastating effect divorce has on the various members of a family unit.Jeff Daniels portrays the effete Bernard Berkman, a once-successful novelist who is now an English professor at a local college in Brooklyn. A name-dropping elitist whose every sentence drips with pretentious commentary and barely disguised contempt for the unwashed masses, Berkman clearly sees himself as the last bastion in a war against all the no-nothing "Philistines" who have come to ravage and ruin the culture. It is this very attitude that Berkman seems to have inculcated into his oldest son, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg), who spends most of his time idolizing his dad, adopting his tastes in art, literature and even women, and mimicking his comments. Laura Linney plays Bernard's wife, Joan, whose career as a writer is beginning to bloom just as Bernard's has begun to fade. Much of the tension between the husband and wife comes from Bernard's inability to accept this turn of events. The fourth member of the family is the younger son, Frank (Owen Kline), who is far more devoted to his mother than to his father and who begins to act out against the divorce in very bizarre and very seriously disturbed ways. The film does a fine job showing the emotional toll divorce takes on children as they often become helpless pawns in the power struggles waged by the two "combatants." Baumbach has kept his film simple and unadorned, rarely going for the big or grand gesture but, instead, letting the drama act itself out in small moments that are both believable and telling. The performances by the four leads are superb down to the smallest detail, and they receive fine support from Halley Feiffer, Anna Paquin and William Baldwin in lesser but still crucial roles."The Squid and the Whale" barely runs 80 minutes, and although it could possibly use a bit more development of character and theme, the movie still manages to pack a great deal of insight and observation into that short time period, making it one of the most interesting movies about family relationships that we've come across in quite some time.
All 'comedies' should be like this
posted on 12 May 2009This is a very painful film to watch. It is also deeply moving, killingly, laugh-out-loud funny and I think it may just be a masterpiece. It's about a divorce and the affect this has, not so much on the divorcing couple, but on their children and it may just be the best American divorce movie ever made. (It's the Ingmar Bergman movie Woody Allen never made). It also clocks in at an unfashionably short 80 minutes and while I would happily have sat through this film were it three times longer I think that had it been my emotional drainage would have left me something of a wet rag. As it is, you still find the pain factor hitting you in the chest like a hard fist. And while I laughed a lot at this movie, (Baumbach knows exactly where to find the comedy in any potential tragedy), I often found the laughs catching in my throat. It's like laughing at someone slipping on a banana skin only to find they never get up.It is, of course, a very sophisticated film. The protagonists are not Mr and Mrs Average but writers, he of weighty tomes that might be called Maileresque if that were not as pretentious as the man himself, (Bernard, the protagonist, not Mailer), now reduced to teaching classes in creative writing and sleeping with one of his students; she, his wife, more grounded and on the ascendant, having just had a story published in The New Yorker. Indeed, much of the humour in this film could come from the pages of the esteemed magazine, and in both roles Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney are magnificent.This is the best thing Daniels has done since "The Purple Rose of Cairo" and it's a very brave performance. The man isn't just a buffoon but a preening, arrogant, self-centered buffoon and Daniels catches him perfectly. In a career of superb Oscar-worthy performances Linney has never been better. She is naturally the more sympathetic character and it is the younger of the two boys, Frank, who identifies with her. The older boy, Walt, is his father's son. (He calls "Metamorphoses" 'Kafkaesque' and dismisses "The Other Side of Paradise" as minor Fitzgerald even though he has never read it). The writer/director of the film Noah Baumbach has based the film somewhat on his own parent's divorce but denies it is largely autobiographical. Still, you can't help thinking it is Walt who may represent Baumbach. You spend the movie wanting to slap him and hard and it is only at the end does he display any real feelings of humanity. Both boys are superbly played by Jesse Eisenberg, (Walt) and Owen Kline, (Frank).Baumbach is a consummate comic writer but his real talent lies in finding the emotional core of the material. The jokes are never facile nor easy but grow, almost generically, from the situations on hand. Perhaps all great comedies should be so but then this movie is much more than a great comedy. You could argue that it isn't a comedy at all but a great drama, (let's push the boat out here and risk hitting the pretentious button and call it Strindbergian), that allows us to laugh at the absurdity of the human condition.
A Fine Movie with Excellent Performances by the two leads.
posted on 28 Apr 2009Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney play a couple who are on the verge of divorce. Neither characters is a particularly good person, Laura Linney because she was adulterous, and Jeff Daniels because he is unbelievably pompous and opinionated, looking down on anybody who is not educated or having the same values as him, he talks down to everybody he meets, and is a horribly unappealing person.The movie is about divorce. I was much younger than these two when my parents divorced but the problems that resulted from the divorce linger today, it isn't fun, and this movie captures that, but that wasn't what stuck out in my mind at this movie. The one thing that stuck out was Jeff Daniels. In this movie he is along way from Dumb and Dumber. He does something that few people do: he plays a true unappealing prick. Okay there are the occasionally Gwyneth Paltrow or Sandra Bullock primadonnas who play unlikable characters, but they are nothing compared to Jeff Daniels.The difference between him and every other character who is a prick is that he is never made to be a sympathetic character. Bythe end of this movie some might realize the man personally doesn't have an admirable trait about him. Kudos to Jeff Daniels as well for pulling this off, he does this part effortlessly. His performance alone left me up, it was startling to me, I stayed up late that night, I couldn't believe how much of a prick he was. The young kids do a nice job as well, giving sincere and disturbing performances.This is a movie that is all acting, no special effects whatsoever. Movies like this focus on characterizations over special effects, and the movie works almost for that reason alone. As far as characters are concerned the movie is concise to almost every detail in terms of characterizing. The movie is set in 1986, and occasionally some of the hairstyles, some of the fashions, and a few other things stick out, and make you realize it's modern time, but by and large not many.To see the differing parenting styles is interesting as well. The problems of the two parents are obvious. Even though the two are not appealing they do love their kids, and they try their best to show their love even though they both have their own personal problems. The movie covers the turbulent four way relationship of four flawed people all of whom may or may not like or love each other. The movie is particularly god in small doses covering the details of the parents and their own argumentative relationship, and their bickering and their disagreements.This movie might get Oscar consideration, but if Jeff Daniels doesn't at least get an Oscar Nomination I will be disappointed, this is by far his best performance. The rest of the movie has a lot of characters who are fun to watch, and a lot to offer a movie goer. the one weakness with the movie were a few forced scenes and an indecisive ending where some will probably think they figured out what's going on but the writer (who happens to be the director) doesn't make it clear enough, I wish he would have, other than that this movie comes highly recommended.
Brilliant Writing
posted on 24 Aug 2009The Squid and the Whale is a hilarious and brilliant look at the American divorce. The Squid and the Whale is one of those films that just gets under your skin disturbing the heck out of you, but it will also make you laugh a lot. The story is where the true brilliance comes from. It is just so true to life and seems so real that even if the screenplay had been bad it would have still worked to a certain extent, but the screenplay is thankfully just as brilliant as the story making it work even better. The performances are also very good, particularly Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney as the parents. Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline are also very good as their kids and Anna Paquin as Daniels girlfriend. The direction is good and memorable but not great. Noah Bumaich seems to be a much better writer than director. A fine film with a brilliant screenplay that is one of the years best.