Written by: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline, William Baldwin, Anna Paquin
Rating: [4/5]
With the statistic always thrown around of half of marriages ending in divorce it’s likely someone has either experienced or knows someone who has had their parents split up. It creates a fracture in the family structure with no telling of how the kids will process the major change. The Squid and the Whale has Noah Baumbach operating at his most cynical in his approach through this story but he does it in such an effective manner.
After several issues exist between them Joan (Laura Linney) and Bernard (Jeff Daniels), the pair agree to separate and tell their sons, Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and Frank (Owen Kline) about the plan for shared custody. As the divorce becomes more established, the relationship between the parents becomes worse as the two boys begin to pick sides.
Surely not a controversial statement to put out there but divorce can certainly leave quite the impact on a kid. Heck, it can also happen when all the kids have grown up but it’s much worse when younger because of the struggle of shared custody and going back and forth between places and then hearing both sides of the reason why things went wrong. The dream of having two parents happily together gets completely shattered and it certainly has an impact on both Walt and Frank, which this feature does a stunning job of distinguishing even with them getting quite messy.
With the split custody these kids go through, the audience follows right along with them seeing how each of these parents has decided to move on after the separation. This begins to present a new perspective of the parents where they not only exist as one married unit but are now two individuals saddled with the responsibility of caring for both of them. This certainly brings out their flaws, but more importantly a distinction of what each of them has actually done for their children compared to the other. It does not take a rocket scientist to decipher which way the story will lean as it lines up with most cases of parenting. When operating as one married unit, the less attentive parent gets sucked into receiving the good credit of the one doing all of the work leaving them exposed when operating on their own. This leaves for one of the larger revelations the feature has to offer, especially in the way these boys begin to process everything going on with their parents.
The way these two cope certainly have their differences with Frank doing some very strange actions while Walt tries to find someone at fault for this screw-up and begins to emulate what he finds cool about his father. Something quite annoying to watch in moments, but it all comes as part of the process for these kids. They share no blame for the split but they must contend with the aftermath and where it leaves them in their lives as another statistic, another two kids from a divorced household and all it entails.
It comes as no surprise Noah Baumbach can craft a spectacular movie centered on divorce and the screenplay he brings to this feature leaves quite the mark. He has a way to give these characters these piercing lines of dialogue that cut through the surface to truly hurt one another. In this feature he reconciles the divorce of his parents much like in Marriage Story he does so on the side of his very own and how it differs. His presentation in this feature certainly has a more immature approach but very much falls right in line with Baumbach’s mindset on the matter at the time and especially with most of this story being told through the lens of these kids.
Of the many great performances in this feature, Jeff Daniels stands out for the way he can effortlessly portray this asshole of a father. It does not take long for Baumach to pinpoint the way this man sets himself up for divorce, which may raise some questions about how the filmmaker felt about his own father. From the tennis sequences where he shows Walt how to target his mother’s weak side and his overall demeanor. Daniels just nails everything about this character allowing us to learn along with Walt and Frank about the truth of this man they idolize.
Incredibly effective and impactful through the writing and performances, The Squid and the Whale serves as Baumbach’s view of divorce and the scariness it presents to the children of it. He manages everything this story calls for and sets up his actors well for them to shine in this story as well. It allows for quite the observation to see the strange actions of these characters but this film maintains a distinct care for these two because Baumbach sees himself through them and we feel for them in their attempts to try to get a sense of normalcy after having their entire daily structure flipped on its head.
Films with Josh 
