Film Reviews

The Squid and the Whale

• Rating:
• Director: Noah Baumbach
• Starring: Jeff Daniels
• Details: US, 81mins, 16s.

When housewife Joan Berkman (Linney) lands a book deal, it upsets her self-proclaimed great novelist husband Bernard (Daniels); so much so it drives a bigger wedge between the already dysfunctional marriage. When he finally walks out, it has devastating consequences on their two sons; lapdog teenager Walt (Eisenberg), who follows his father around and takes everything he says as gospel, suddenly has to think for himself for the first time while their other son - twelve-year-old Frank - hits the booze and discovers masturbation.
Opening with the tennis match - Bernard and Walt versus Joan and Frank - brilliantly sets up the comedy, the competitiveness and the politics of the Berkman household and this is the mainstay of The Squid And The Whale. With literary-referencing comedic lines and relying on character to get the jokes across, it is obvious from the outset that this is from the Wes Anderson stable of writing (Noah Baumbach wrote Anderson's previous outing The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou). But it's not all comedy as Baumbach injects a certain realism into his film not often seen; Linney meticulously scrapping dry skin off her bottom lip in the bathroom mirror, Eisenberg getting a runny nose while kissing his girlfriend and Daniels scooping up his lamb cutlets off the dirty lino. Daniels reinvents himself as the selfish, cheap, bookish, tell-it-like-is novelist and Eisenberg makes a great impact as his asshole son; but is Owen Kline - with only one other acting credit to his name - that is the standout as the foul-mouthed beer-swigging adolescent.

Review by Gavin Burke