The Squid and the Whale

The Work:
The Squid and the Whale

The Artist(s):
Directed by Noah Baumbach. Starring Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney, Owen Kline, Jesse Eisenberg, William Baldwin.

Description:
Critic: I’ll take this one.

Consumer: Fine, fine.

Critc: Okay. Bernard and Joan Berkman (Jeff Daniels and Larua Linney) are writers and the parents of two teenaged sons. Bernard’s career has evidently seen better days, while Joan’s writing career is just taking off. Professional jealousy leads to a separation. Bernard moves from the family’s Brooklyn brownstone to a place across the park. In the aftermath of the divorce, the whole family struggles to adjust. Bernard tries to seduce one of his students, Joan dates the tennis pro, and the sons engage in various forms of antisocial behavior.

Purpose:

Critic: It’s a story about divorce.

Consumer: I don’t know what it’s about. Divorce I guess.

Critic: It’s a story about pride, ultimately. About putting our image of ourselves in front of our relationships with our family, about ambition versus socialization. Bernard can’t let go of his self-image as a brilliant novelist, and this poisons all his relationships. The oldest son, Walt, plagiarizes a song to bolster his image as a rock savant.

Consumer: Laura Linney is awesome. And looks beautiful, too.

Critic: I have to agree with you there, but we need to save that for the next section.

Consumer: Oh. Okay, then it’s a story about divorce. Divorce sucks.

What Works:

Consumer: Laura Linney works, don’t you think so? Great hair. And I like Jeff Daniels’ beard too. And Walt’s romance with the girl is kind of cute.

Critic: There are some wonderful scenes in this movie. The opening scene with the whole family playing tennis is pitch-perfect. Some of Jeff Daniels’ work is sublimely tragicomic here. The way he can’t see his own faults, the way he’s incapable of true self-reflection. It’s good stuff. Daniels and Linney are both outstanding. They don’t have to scream and shout to convey the kind of complicated emotions that accompany a divorce.

Consumer: I also like the music. Good 70’s rock.

Critic: The storytelling is top-notch. When I look at a movie, the first thing I try to deduce is how much weight each scene carries. That is, how important is the scene to the plot, how engaging is it as a standalone piece, and how well does it advance either the arc of the characters or the theme of the movie? Almost every scene here, from that perspective, ranges from good to excellent.
What Doesn't Work:
Consumer: I got bored. Nothing happened! Jeff Daniels didn’t even die when he was hit by the car. Now that would’ve been cool.

Critic: I think they were trying to avoid the cheap ending.

Consumer: Still, I got bored.

Critic: Yep, I have to agree with you. Ultimately the movie could not resolve itself. Who is the main character? We knew they were all in trouble, but who was going to be the repository for all that angst, who was going to function as our vehicle to the resolution? Usually, in stories like this, the formula is:

Most sympathetic + Most troubled = Our hero.

In this case, the youngest son was the most troubled (and all the characters were somewhat sympathetic), so I had Frank Berkman picked out as our hero. But then near the end of the third act we find that it’s the oldest son, Walt, who is going to lead us to a resolution.

Consumer: And he never does, though. He just rambles to that shrink.

Critic: Right. We get the theme of the movie in one of the last scenes. Walt tells a psychiatrist (a character inserted far too late) that he used to go to the natural history museum with his mother, but he was afraid to look at the squid and the whale exhibit because the idea of these two great creatures fighting one another always frightened him. In the final scene, Walt runs to the museum and looks at the squid and the whale. Ah, symbolism! Water as the subconscious. Two great beasts, representing Walt’s parents, who in turn represent a primal human conflict between ambition and socialization, battling to the death. Now that Walt can look, does that means he’s cured? That he’s undergone change? It wasn’t enough of an ending for me. If you’ve come this far in the movie without setting up an ending, don’t even try. Just roll the credits.

Consumer: You just gave away the ending!

Critic: (sniffing) There’s no ending to give away.

Consumer: Well, I would’ve liked to see more Billy Baldwin as the tennis pro. I thought he was good although his clothes were awkward and his face was kind of squishy.

Critic: In Hollywood, that’s known as “acting.” Charlize Theron won an Oscar for bad clothes and a squishy face.

Consumer: Get a haircut and a new Izod shirt, Billy, and go back to being a hunk like in Sliver when you seduced Sharon Stone.

Critic: (clears throat)

Verdict:
Consumer: Let me take this. I say go ahead and rent it. Everyone in the cast is fun to look at, even Jeff Daniels, and it’s one of those funky movies, the kind that makes you feel like you’ve been listening to a folk singer in a coffeehouse. Afterward you want to go buy art even though you don’t like art.

Critic: Surprisingly, I agree. Not for the same reasons, but I agree. Rent it for the acting and the excellent writing. Just don’t expect the emotional payoff that comes with a resolution.