Themes: Breakups and Divorces, Dysfunctional Families, Writer's Life
Main Cast: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin
Release Year: 2005
Country: US
Run Time: 88 minutes
MPAA Rating: R
Plot
Two boys learn the hard way about how a marriage falls apart in this independent comedy drama. Bernard (Jeff Daniels) is a novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline as he spends more time teaching and less time writing. His wife, Joan (Laura Linney), meanwhile, has recently begun publishing her own work to widespread acclaim, which only increases the growing tension between them. One day, Bernard and Joan's two sons -- 16-year-old Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and 12-year-old Frank (Owen Kline) -- are told that their parents are separating, with Bernard renting a house on the other side of their Park Slope, Brooklyn, neighborhood. As the parents set up a schedule for spending time with their children, Walt and Jesse can hardly imagine that things could get more combative between their folks, but they do, as Joan begins dating Ivan (William Baldwin), Frank's tennis instructor, and Bernard starts sharing the house with Lili (Anna Paquin), one of his students. Meanwhile, the two boys begin taking sides in the battle between their parents, with Walt taking after his father and Frank siding with his mom. Based on writer/director Noah Baumbach's own childhood experiences with his parents' divorce, The Squid and the Whale won prizes for writing and direction at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
Review
Writer/director Noah Baumbach takes a major step forward as a filmmaker with The Squid and the Whale. Perhaps it's the combination of revelatory autobiographical content and producer Wes Anderson's formal influence, but this is Baumbach's most emotionally potent and visually coherent film to date. While Baumbach's primary focus remains on his characters -- their personality quirks including what might be called "comfort phrases," (Ivan's use of "my brother" as punctuation, Joan [Laura Linney] calling her children "Pickle" and "Chicken," and Bernard's [Jeff Daniels] use of "filet," as in "Leonard is the filet of the crime genre," are good examples) -- his visuals, including a trip across Prospect Park by subway (while the family takes the car) work strongly in support of his narrative. Baumbach's ubiquitous references to other films, distractingly prominent in his earlier work, are integrated seamlessly into The Squid and the Whale. While his other films certainly had their tender, sincere moments, Baumbach occasionally seemed to strain to get laughs, or to ingratiate the audience to his oddball characters. He moves beyond that here. His blunt rendering of Frank's (the amazing young Owen Kline) disturbed sexual reaction to his parents' split, and Walt's (Jesse Eisenberg as a stand-in for the young Baumbach) pretentious adoption of his father's air of intellectualism feel painfully true-to-life, beyond their entertainment value. As piercing and witty as Baumbach's script is, it couldn't work without a superb cast. These are deeply flawed people struggling through a crisis, unable to see beyond their own narrow view. Baumbach captures the pain and confusion that lurk beneath their anger and bluster. The Squid and the Whale is marked by a sometimes painful emotional honesty that lends even the goofiest characters (e.g. Ivan) their dignity and humanity. ~ Josh Ralske, All Movie Guide
Douglas Aibel - Casting, Amy Westcott - Costume Designer, Noah Baumbach - Director, Tim Streeto - Editor, Andrew Lauren - Executive Producer, Reverge Anselmo - Executive Producer, Miranda Bailey - Executive Producer, Greg Johnson - Executive Producer, Randall Poster - Musical Direction/Supervision, Anne Ross - Production Designer, Robert Yeoman - Cinematographer, Peter Newman - Producer, Wes Anderson - Producer, Charlie Corwin - Producer, Clara Markowicz - Producer, Allan Byer - Sound/Sound Designer, Noah Baumbach - Screenwriter, Lewis Goldstein - Re-Recording Mixer, Lewis Goldstein - Supervising Sound Editor, Jennifer Roth - Co-Executive Producer, Britta Phillips - Featured Music, Pink Floyd - Featured Music, Dean Wareham - Featured Music
Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels) is a arrogant once-great novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline as he spends more time teaching and less time writing. His wife, Joan (Laura Linney), has recently begun publishing her own work to widespread acclaim, which only increases the growing tension between them. One day, Bernard and Joan's two sons—16-year-old Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and 12-year-old Frank (Owen Kline)—are told that their parents are separating, with Bernard renting a house on the other side of Prospect Park from their home in Park Slope, Brooklyn. As the parents set up a schedule for spending time with their children, Walt and Frank can hardly imagine that things could get more combative between their folks, but they do, as Joan begins dating Ivan (William Baldwin), Frank's tennis instructor, and Bernard starts sharing his new house with Lili (Anna Paquin), one of his students. Meanwhile, the two boys begin taking sides in the battle between their parents, with Walt taking after his father and Frank siding with his mother.
The film concludes with Walt going to the American Museum of Natural History and viewing the squid and the whale exhibit. It alludes to the past when he and his mother used to visit this particular exhibit.
The Squid and the Whale was met with critical acclaim. It scored 82 out of 100 on Metacritic[1] according to 37 critics and 94% on Rotten Tomatoes. On an episode of Ebert & Roeper, both critics praised the film and gave it a "two thumbs up" rating. In Roger Ebert's print review, he wrote, "All I know is, it is better to be the whale than the squid. Whales inspire major novels."
Premiere critic Glenn Kenny praised the film, writing, "It's a rare film that can be convincingly tender, bitterly funny, and ruthlessly cutting over the course of fewer than 90 minutes. The Squid and the Whale not only manages this, it also contains moments that sock you with all three qualities at the same time."
Time critic Richard Corliss wrote, "The Squid and the Whale is domestic tragedy recollected as comedy: a film whose catalog of deceits and embarrassments, and of love pratfalling over itself, makes it as (excruciatingly) painful as it is (exhilaratingly) funny."
The film appeared on over 200 critics' top ten lists of 2005.[citation needed]
Six Independent Spirit Award nominations. Best Feature, Best Director (Baumbach), Best Screenplay (Baumbach), Best Supporting Male (Jesse Eisenberg), Best Female Lead (Laura Linney) and Best Male Lead (Jeff Daniels)
Three Golden Globe nominations (Best Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy, Jeff Daniels for Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy and Laura Linney for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture - Musical or Comedy)
The film was released on DVD on March 21, 2006 by Sony Pictures. The DVD includes a 45-minute commentary with director Noah Baumbach, another 40-minute commentary with Baumbach and Phillip Lopate, cast interviews, and trailers.
Soundtrack
The soundtrack features two songs by Loudon Wainwright III and one by Kate and Anna McGarrigle. Wainwright and Kate McGarrigle were briefly married during the 1970s and had two children, Rufus Wainwright and Martha Wainwright (both of whom are now also accomplished singer/songwriters). The two Loudon Wainwright III songs are from the 1973 album Attempted Mustache, on which McGarrigle has a significant influence. "Lullaby" was influenced by the birth of Rufus Wainwright, while "The Swimming Song" features both Loudon Wainwright and McGarrigle on the five-string banjo (an instrument that McGarrigle taught Wainwright how to play). The film makes many references to Risky Business, including portions of "Love on a Real Train (Risky Business)" by Tangerine Dream, which appeared in that film's original score. Baumbach originally wanted to use the Who's "Behind Blue Eyes" instead of Pink Floyd's "Hey You," but he could not secure the rights to the former.
