Review of The Squid and the Whale (2005) by Chris H — 06 Sep 2011

This caught my attention because Daddario is in it, but she's literally only on screen for no more than 3 seconds, as she casts a flirtatious look Eisenberg's way. And that's it. It doesn't matter though, as once I found out who the rest of the cast were I was up for this even more. This is an all round decent and smart little Indie film.

The subject of parents splitting up is always a strong one, as it can affect kids' lives so thoroughly, as you're basically changed for ever due to it. The realism (this is based on the director's youth) shines through strongly.

I love the major literay aspect to this - both parents being authors and having PhDs in literature, and the way the film discusses and presents its (sometimes quite harsh) opinions on various literary classics.

Daniels is great here, if a bit of a an arse at times. I'm on his characters side way more than the Mums (cheating and flaunting the evidence isn't right), but Linney's character was more subdued and less arrogant I felt.

Eisenberg is always awesome and highly likable. Baldwin takes on kind of a comic role here, and it was great having Leung as the pychologist and Daddario for those brief few seconds.

It's honest, and it's assured and clever. It may never veer into that exciting a narrative, but it's more a character study than anything else, and these characters are very well drawn.

My being scared of massive deep sea creatures, I find that Squid and the Whale model scary-looking even now - sod being taken right up close to that as a kid.