"The Squid and the Whale" (2005) - Movie Review

Sam Mendes in “American Beauty” beautifully delivered the weird and strange expectations of a couple which leads to the demise of their marriage. Also he depicted how it affects the children in bizarre behavioral way. Sam Mendes used the environmental pressure and the materialistic obsession in his movie to show the disturbance in the family. Noah Baumbach took out his personal childhood experience and screens it in “The Squid and the Whale”. The monumental task for these critical and fragile juveniles is painful to love the two people who hate each other. This concentrated collection of a separated family has been dealt in “The Squid and the Whale” with some stellar performances and powerful screenplay.

The movie is set in the residential houses of Brooklyn in the year 1986. Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) are two professional writers with two sons Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline). With Joan being successful with her writing skills coming up recently and Bernard’s hunting for his break and many other differences lead to their separation. Rest is the complexities and the bitter truths which wrestle the minds of their children and themselves forming this short yet profound movie.

The director never tries to put the viewers into the situation of the key role players rather makes them the neighbour and spectators. Within initial five minutes sequences, the members of the audience can identify who is who and whom they like and why they like. The screenplay is so striking that the process of elaborate essay of a character is minimized in couple of minutes. Jeff Daniels as Bernard swipes the table of performances so perfectly. Laura Linney as an understanding mother and a woman who is longing to have personal wishes is as good as well. Jesse Eisenberg comes as the second star of the movie as Walt while Owen Kline as Frank competes for it too. William Baldwin and Anna Paquin provide the supporting cast as and when needed.

The sequence of the couple announcing their separation to their kids is brilliant. They plan everything materialistically, even their children. It is not a pleasant sight to witness a couple depart especially when they scratch their head on what to do with their cat. It is scary to see when two people who lived together for a substantial duration of time, fighting fingers to the bone to get the most benefit and cause the most harm to the opposite party. There are no hard scenes of screaming to establish that fact but the screenplay plays it immaculately. Its one day playing family tennis and next day it’s a topsy turvy land of whose “night” and “day” to be with them and the viewer sympathize with the children. The movie also generates the confused state of mind of Walt wherein he is being controlled and coming up as a replica of his dad. Frank opposed to his elder brother, believes in what he likes than what is best. He challenges his own dad and finds guilty pleasure of winning over him. Bernard is a mix of the entire irritating and supposedly “intellectual” father no one wants to be around. As in contrast, Joan is caring and honest in her thoughts and with her sons.

The ending is so artistic and symbolic of the comparison of the Squid and whale to the sexes. “The Squid and the Whale” is a definite watch for independent genre movie goers and a very nice start to rest of the genre audiences to enter the world of independent movie making.

(Thanks to Mathi for Proof Reading and Corrections)