Movie Review: The Squid and the Whale (2005)

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

I’m very depressed about this last weekend’s box office. Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen not only made more money than its empty predecessor, but is the top-earner of the summer. And with over $200 million under its belt, very few films aside from Harry Potter are poised to usurp Transformers from its undeserved position. Word-of-mouth has been poor for months and critics are unanimously in agreement over Transformers’ noisy, mindless stupidity, and yet here we are, Monday morning, and should I really be surprised? I guess it was the biggest movie out this week. Also there’s Meghan Fox. I would be greatly relieved to find out $100 million of Transformers' earnings was simply from horny young (or old) men desperate for some Fox-y eye-candy. Sadly, I know this is probably not the case. In lieu of a Transformers review, which I will leave for someone else to write, here is a rental recommendation for those of you who still have yet to see Noah Baumbach’s The Squid and the Whale (2005).

The Squid and the Whale is an artsy, witty, independent dramedy of a style that is more popular today than it was in 2005. Wes Anderson has built his career on this style, and owns a producing credit on this feature. It’s a little like Juno (2007), or Adventureland (2008). The cast is young and their world is dressed to feel familiar and real. The film is an examination of family dynamics which are never melodramatic or soap-opera-y; this is a very functional family that appears to be going through genuine difficulties. In fact, one might say their troubles are somewhat mundane, but it is the wit of the characters and the heart of the story that makes The Squid and the Whale so entertainingly watchable and darkly funny.

Laura Linney plays Joan, the mother of the family, who is almost instantly likeable and sympathetic, especially when compared to her snobby, egotistical husband, Bernard. But she is far from perfect, as you will learn. Her character, and almost all of the others, finds redemption or recognition one way or another by the end of the film: a growth that feels both natural and eventual. This is satisfying.

Her two children are without strong male role models. The older boy, Walt, idolizes his father and is impervious to the superficiality and destructive advice his father bestows. The younger boy, Frank, is more attached to his mother and is more attracted to the qualities embodied by his tennis instructor Ivan than those embodied by his father who frequently belittles this relationship and denounces Frank’s attractive interpretation of Ivan’s lifestyle. Ivan is a “Philistine,” Bernard exclaims: someone who is uninteresting because he or she shows little interest in good books or movies.

Jeff Daniels plays the only character who never really develops, who is stubbornly ignorant of his short-comings which prove destructive as he mentors his oldest son, Walt, in academia, love, and relationships. Daniel’s Bernard Berkman is only sympathetic because he is so pathetically ignorant of his arrogant, elitist artificiality: a psychosis that not only rots his marriage, but threatens to disrupt the growth of his kids.

The Squid and the Whale is really about Walt finally stepping out of the shadow of his image-conscious father and becoming his own person. The final scene of the movie features a profound image that references a seemingly trivial anecdote symbolizing a young man made ignorant through reverence of his father, but who now sees the entire picture.

Final verdict: a superbly written, masterfully acted drama about parents and their children coming-of-age amidst the turmoil of divorce.

Professor Puff