As you watch The Squid and the Whale you wonder how autobiographical it is. The story of a family's divorce and the effect on the kids is filled with too much authenticity to be anything but. I found out after seeing the film, Noah Baumbach, the writer-director, was raised in Brooklyn. His father Jonathan Baumbach, was a novelist and film critic and his mother, Georgia Brown, was a critic for the Village Voice, and they did divorce.
In the film, Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and Joan (Laura Linney) Berkman, live in Park Slope Brooklyn, in 1986, with their two sons: Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) who's in high school and younger brother Frank (Owen Kline, son of actors Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates). Bernard's personality is the strongest in the family. He's a formerly successful writer who thinks way too much of himself. He's frustrated at his inability to get published anymore and is quick to put down others. Walt is unfortunately picking up these traits. Bernie tells him his reading assignments are the lesser works of great authors and that's a function of the education system he's stuck in. Walt of course starts repeating such things. When Walt speaks highly of Kafka's Metamorphosis to a girl in school, she reads it and wants to discuss it with him. Walt describes it as Kafkaesque which she says is self-evident, Kafka wrote it. Walt's left with nothing else, because he's never read it.
We don't know much about Joan at first, aside from the fact that she has difficulty dealing with Bernie. We also know that she's begun writing herself and is having some success at getting published. This only adds to Bernie's frustrations. I found myself siding with Joan on many of the arguments but we learn later that she's made her mistakes and is no saint either.
Early on, Bernard moves 5 subways stops away and they take joint custody of the kids and the cat. I found it very amusing when one of of Walt's friends explains why he hates joint custody vs other custody arrangements. We watch how the children take sides in the various issues. One of Bernies students (Anna Paquin) moves in with him and teenage Walt develops crush for her. Joan starts dating the tennis pro (William Baldwin) who Frank idolizes and Bernie calls a Philistine.
What's sad is neither is a good parent. The children swear, turn violent, plagerize, lie, and each learns to hate one of their parents. Frank, who seems about 12 years old, drinks beer and whiskey and no one seems to care. This is not the ideal family situation. You see them make one mistake after another, but these aren't melodramatic movie mistakes, they are small things that add up.
It's very engaging and the acting is excellent. This is probably Jeff Daniels best role. Laura Linney does her usualy wonderful job and the two kids pull off very difficult roles. The music is awesome. I was humming Hey You for a couple of days after seeing this and any soundtrack that has Schoolhouse Rocks on it is okay in my book.
There's a lot to really like about this film, but there is also unfortunately a flaw. Baumach isn't sure what he wants to say with this story. There isn't so much a story arc as there is a weak wrapup with a nod to Citizen Kane. As Bernie says to his student, there are worse things to draw from, but it doesn't really work. While we've gotten to know these interesting characters well, we don't really see how things turn out for them. Maybe that's the point, but it still left me a little cold.
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