The Squid and the Whale

Noah Baumbach
2005

"The Squid and the Whale" is an incredibly touching and sincere film directed with the poise required of such a bald-faced take on a painfully relevant topic. The story centers around the aftermath of a divorce between two upper-middle class intellectuals in mid 80's Park Slope Brooklyn, and the following effect on their sons lives.

The script is strong with well rounded, believable characters brought to the screen by extraordinary performances. Jeff Daniels revels in his role as the ultra-pushy, over-intellectual has-been who's got only a son and a few of his college students for fans. This portrayal is a nice response to the old Woody Allen model of the professor/student affair. Allen's glamorization of this relationship is a far cry from Baumbach's pair of desperate blowhard and self absorbed brat. Personally, I find Baumbach's version to be more honest.

Laura Linney's matriarch adds the hardest hitting (and realistic) element to the film as a generally un-funny woman who's un-repentant about her current divorce and her past infidelities. While humorless, she is never pigeonholed as an individual worthy of either disapproval or pity. This is in contrast to father Bernard's comically aggressive, pompous attitude used to mask his angst and malaise. While we never get a feminist vocalization from Linney her uncompromising attitude and courageous actions make her most worthy of post-film thought.

The biggest letdown of the film is easily Robert Yeoman's lazy cinematography. An accomplished script with accomplished performances deserves much better than a tired, shaky-hand-held motif, no matter how trendy. Yeoman is an accomplished cinematographer and should have the artistic sense to film this un-melodramatic take on a heartrending premise with the same respect and sincerity that he lensed "The Royal Tenenbaums" in.

A lot of ink has been spilled about the large amount of onscreen sexuality in the film. The discovery of sex, emerging from the children and recently rediscovered by the divorcees is generally entertaining but adds little to the heart of the story. I'm sure that memories of this sort were big in Baumbach's noggin while writing this semi-autobiographical picture, but this particular example is a time when art doesn't necessarily need to imitate life. You know you've got something rare when the sexual intrigue of a film is not nearly as exciting as the familial dealings.

Review by Brett A. Scieszka