Review

Review Date: 6-November-05
Spoiler Rating: Medium
Juju Judgment: Just OK

The Squid and the Whale (2005)

My father once taught me that life could be mirrored on the tennis court, so the opening scene of "The Squid and the Whale" spoke volumes to me. On one side of the net we see Bernard and Walt Berkman, father and son (Jeff Daniels, Jesse Eisenberg); on the other side, Joan and Frank Berkman, mother and son (Laura Linney, Owen Kline); and in every ground stroke between them, a world of anger and confusion. As Bernard aims smashes at his seething wife, it's plain that the older boy has taken his father's side as a rudder for the passage to manhood, while the younger still clings to the apron strings and wishes everyone would get along. But it's also clear that he won't get his wish. This family has played its game too viciously for anyone to emerge a winner.

"The Squid and the Whale" follows the Berkmans in the months after the divorce, when the kids are shuffled between parents and act out their frustration in a variety of pubescent ways. Predictably, Walt opts to spend most of his time with his dad, whose pseudo-bohemian, published-author smugness looks sophisticated to impressionable eyes (including those of a nubile college student played, familiarly, by Anna Paquin). In point of fact, Bernard is an immature, colossally self-centered prick whose one contribution to the family is making his ex-wife seem decent by comparison. (Without him, she might come across as a clueless slut.) Daniels is so good at being so horrible that he points to the movie's single strength and major weakness: the actors give remarkable performances as people I, for one, want to know nothing about.

The lesson the Berkmans teach is one of acceptance. They demonstrate how some people really, really shouldn't have children, and how their unfortunate offspring must summon the courage to face the reality of their lives. Yet one need only walk out the door to see countless examples of this every day. Straightforward and stark (despite flashes of humor), "The Squid and the Whale" offers no new hope or insight into the fact of misery perpetuating misery.

Copyright © 2005 The Jujube (M. I. Kim). All rights reserved.