Year: 2005
Director: Noah Baumbach
Country: US
Language: English
The Squid and the Whale is a semi-autobiographical comedy drama about Director Noah Baumbach's Brooklyn childhood and the effects of his parents' divorce on the family in the 1980's. In an interview, Baumbach said of the film, "Sometimes when I think about the whole experience of this, it starts to become a joke within a joke within a joke. The film is not only inspired by my childhood and my parents’ divorce, but it was also the first script I didn’t show to my parents while I was working on it. It’s not that I wanted to protect them from anything. I just wanted to keep it my own experience.
The dysfunctional family of pseudo intellectuals composed by the university professor Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and the prominent writer Joan (Laura Linney) split. Bernard is a selfish, cheap and jealous decadent writer that rationalizes every attitude in his family and life and does not accept "philistines" - people that do not read books or watch movies, while the unfaithful Joan is growing as a writer and has no problems with "philistines. Their two young kids take sides and battle lines are drawn.
The best thing that can be said about this film is that it is well-written. The dialogue can go from witty to cut throat in a heartbeat. The characters are well crafted; each one I can relate to & see myself in. I don't find it easy to empathize with the main child, Walt Berkman (Jesse Eisenberg) because it is easy to be envious of the life he has. If only everybody's biggest problem in life was the divorce of their parents. However, suffering is suffering; not every man can have problems the magnitude of Spartacus.
The Squid and the Whale is essentially about how we grow up by absorbing what is useful in our parents and forgiving what is not. Joan cheats on her husband, but has an optimistic view of marriage & romance whereas Bernard has a pessimistic view of marriage & encourages his son to "play the field" but never thinks he should be cheated on. Ultimately Baumbach we shouldn't blame our on difficulties on our parents, because we can make choices. We can choose to let go of the negative and learn from the positive. Overall a well made picture with a very important message. Praise it! 4/5
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