The Squid and the Whale
Directed and scripted by Noah Baumbach, who collaborated with Wes Anderson on The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou, it comes as no surprise that The Squid and the Whale is a heartfelt, offbeat, and cringingly funny piece of work. A semi-autobiographical film set in Brooklyn, it tells the story of Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney), a husband and wife who just can’t make their marriage work anymore. The story follows the impact their divorce has, not just on them but also on their two children, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline).
Bernard is an opinionated, pretentious man, reduced to teaching creative writing classes as he unsuccessfully attempts to get his latest novel published. Joan, conversely, has managed to garner the attention of the New Yorker magazine, which has published an excerpt from her forthcoming book. As the pair awkwardly and bitterly maintains a partial civility toward each other, the two sons are dealing with the situation in their own peculiar ways.
16 year-old Walt idolises his father and is seen passing off Bernard’s pompous opinions as his own, as well as performing Pink Floyd’s Hey You to his classmates claiming it as his own composition. He blames his mother for the divorce, when it is revealed to him that she had been unfaithful to Bernard, something Bernard himself insensitively reveals to his son. 12 year-old Frank starts quaffing beer, swearing outrageously and engaging in a particularly messy habit involving library books and school lockers. He does not identify as readily with his father, and sees the local tennis coach (nicely underplayed by William Baldwin) as his hero.
Shot on beautifully grainy Super 8 film, the film has a deliciously caught-on-the-street air to it, the leafy Brooklyn streets seeming almost tangible, and the 80’s time period ringing as true here as it did in Donnie Darko. Linney and Daniels are unsurprisingly excellent, while Jesse Eisenberg, whose previous work includes the raucously acidic Roger Dodger, is perfectly cast as a churlish teenager desperately balancing his eagerness to impress his father with his awkward sexual and intellectual naivety. Young Owen Kline, son of Kevin, is both hilarious and affecting, as an eccentric, confused little boy dealing with the trauma of his parents’ separation.
The film is bursting with cinematic and literary references, and it is Daniels’ character that comes off the worst, as he manipulates his children and tries so very hard to instil in them the same disregard he has for the ‘philistines’ of society. He chaperones Walt and his new girlfriend to the cinema, convincing them to see Blue Velvet instead of Short Circuit. He name-drops shamelessly, talks up his novelist pedigree and all but fights with his teen son for the affections of a young female student. Even when he has a heart attack on the street he manages to shoehorn in a line from A Bout de Souffle while being carted to an ambulance.
The film succeeds on many levels; as a warm family drama with an intelligent script, and also as a look at the effect our parents’ actions, and indeed personalities, have on our impressionable lives as children. When Walt does eventually let his guard down, he recounts the story that lends the movie its title. His recollection of a childhood experience is a pivotal moment, crowning the movie beautifully and it would take a cold-hearted person to leave the cinema without a lump in their throat.