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Squid and the Whale, The
The lives of an intellectual New York family are thrown into turmoil after an unexpected divorce. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney star in this darkly funny drama from writer-director Noah Baumbach
Briskly edited and running at only 80 minutes, The Squid And The Whale is the cinematic equivalent of a novella. Writer-director Noah Baumbach packs the relatively scant running time full of humour, emotion and genuinely impressive performances. Noah Baumbach co-wrote Wes Anderson's The Life Aquatic (and Anderson acts as a producer here) so there's an echo of the offbeat intellectual humour of Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums. Baumbach sidesteps Anderson's occasionally austere stylisation. Instead, we get an evocative, semi-autobiographical recreation of 1986 New York life, and a story of a family in crisis that's both touching and painfully funny. From the hilariously tense and aggressive tennis match in the opening scene, it's obvious that the Brenkman family is in trouble. Soon novelist-turned-lecturer Bernard (Daniels) and rising literary star Joan (Linney) are sitting down with their children Walt (Eisenberg) and Frank (Kline) to tell them that their marriage is over. Joint custody is the plan, with each parent having equal time with the children. Unfortunately this splits the family in half, as 16-year-old Walt (Eisenberg) sides with his father and blames Joan, while the 12-year-old Frank (Kline) favours his mother as well as showing an unhealthy amount of interest in her sex life. Neither of the kids is prepared for the confusing and tumultuous emotional strains that the divorce uncovers. While Walt passes off Pink Floyd songs as his own work and unwisely follows his father's relationship advice, Frank experiments with swearing, hard booze and masturbation. As the story progresses, both of them have to face up to the events happening around them, as well as their relationships with their parents. The highlight of the film is Jeff Daniels as the brilliantly deadpan and self-absorbed Bernard, a mixed-up, blinkered and pompous character who responds to everything in the manner of a literary critic (seeing his son crying, he remarks "You can borrow my copy of 'The Naked and the Dead' if you like"). Yet Daniels turns him into a genuinely human, almost tragic character. His bitterness at his ex-wife and his desperately sleazy attempts to sleep with one of his pupils (Paquin) could easily have been unsympathetic, but Daniels carries it off in style. There are also excellent performances from the rest of the ensemble- particularly Eisenberg and Kline in a pair of difficult roles, and William Baldwin as a spaced-out tennis tutor who refers to everybody as "Brother". The movie's sense of time and place is wonderfully evoked with a fantastic soundtrack and a host of period details, most especially in a cinematic night out where the choice is either Short Circuit or Blue Velvet (with hilariously uncomfortable results). Where Baumbach really triumphs is maintaining a sharp balance between the witty dialogue and the emotion behind the story, capturing the awkward mess of jealousies and confusions that result when families split up. It's a script loaded with rich, quotable lines, and yet what really matters is the way the characters interact, and even the smaller roles like Walt's hesitant girlfriend Sophie (Feiffer) are given realistic and convincing depth. Verdict Short, sharp and to-the-point, Baumbach's well-crafted tale of a family's coming-of-age is hugely satisfying. |
