Review of The Squid and the Whale (2005) by Olaolu A — 24 Nov 2013

A solid and affecting film that mixes understated drama with wry humor to relate the tale of a divorce and the effects that the aftermath has on both the parents and their two children. Apparently, the writer/director of this film, Noah Baumbach based this story on his own personal experiences growing up in New York City as young man dealing with his own parents' divorce and, considering the level of honesty with which the script (which went on to be Oscar-nominated) was written, I can certainly accept this as fact.

In many ways, while I was watching this, I was reminded of a more recent film, The Kids Are All Right, that also explored the dynamics of a family in crisis. The specific circumstances may be different but when you boil everything down to essentials, it's the same sort of conflict that's at play here and the same types of forces that threaten to divide each family (although the couple in Kids are lesbians and don't use a divorce to resolve their issues like the straight couple depicted here).

Moreover, neither film stacks the deck when it comes to its characters; sure, these people do things to one another that are deeply hurtful but they are equally as capable of showing love and kindness.

Most importantly, both films provide conclusions that don't feel like cheats. The movie ends once the story has been told but not every loose end has to be neatly tied up and not every character has to have been force-fed a sense of closure.

I found The Kids Are All Right to be the better overall film on the balance, but The Squid and The Whale (which takes its title from a display at the American Museum of Natural History that plays a crucial role in the film) doesn't trail too far behind it.

As with the more recent film, this one relies on a solid script and host of strong performances as its anchors. Jeff Daniels, in particular, is surprisingly good going somewhat against type as the Bernard, patriarch of this family whose egotistical attitudes and unsparing opinions about everything and everyone oftentimes overshadow the deeply buried pain in his soul.

As his ex-wife Joan, the always-excellent Laura Linney once again brings her A-game and the two actors playing their children, Jesse Eisenberg (who plays Walt, the elder and more reserved of the two sons), and Owen - son of Kevin - Kline (who plays Frank, the younger and far more unruly younger son who deals with his frustrations in ways that will surely get anyone's attention) are solid as well (Eisenberg would of course see his star rise in the years following this film, culminating in an Oscar nomination for his bravura interpretation of Mark Zuckerberg in The Social Network).

Aside from the central cast, the other two actors with important parts in the film are Anna Paquin (as one of Walt's students with whom he becomes lovers) and William Baldwin (as Frank's tennis coach Ivan, who unsurprisingly becomes romantically entangled with Joan).

In the end, this film will resonate with anyone who has experienced the often fractious war zones that we like to call families - and more so, perhaps, with those who have experienced the effects of a divorce - as well as with anyone who enjoys well-written and well-acted slice-of-life dramas that don't have to resort to cliches and melodrama to attain their impact.