3/4  Another Indie Winner
An acute, well-written, highly personal drama of an already fractured family and their struggle with parental separation; nicely acted (especially by Jeff Daniels) and full of insight, but very little is solved by the end. Final Grade: ... (read full)

3/5 Thought provoking sour drama....
  by Emanuel Perdis (NSW Australia)
Very thought provoking realistic script with confronting aspects about divorce, marriage and sibling relationships. As art, amazing....As a viewing experience...I did not enjoy it at all.

4/5 Realistic? Maybe, but entertaining, too
  by Bradley F. Smith (Miami Beach, FL)
I loved that this was set in 1986 Brooklyn, so evocative of a time lost. Jeff Daniels is pitch perfect as the PhD dad who is at war with his emotions. The two kids give rather astonishing performances, squirm-worthy, really. There's no plot, but the writing is the real star here, and it shines. Highly recommended.

1/5 I Want My 81 Minutes Back!
  by petesea (Orlando, FL)
Who cares about these self-absorbed, f'd up idiots? What were Phoebe Cates and Kevin Kline thinking letting their young son play the twisted Frank?

5/5 I don't know, I haven't seen it yet. I've seen stills
  by C. CRADDOCK (Bakersfield)
From the first line when Frank Berkman (Owen Kline) says "Mom and me versus you and Dad," we know what this film is about. Though it's only a tennis match, it's more than that. The parents will split, the two brothers will take sides, and the parents will use them both as proxies, or better yet, as pawns in their battle, with joint custody providing the pretext. As the tagline clearly states: "Joint Custody Blows."

Walter Berkman (Jesse Eisenberg) takes his father's side, especially when he learns that it was mom who had an affair. But maybe he should have taken a closer look at just who his father is before taking on so much of his attitudes and world view. His father, Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels), is a literature professor who thinks he is smarter than the average bear. The philistines, by whom he means everybody else, do not appreciate good books and interesting films. Meanwhile, he is totally out of touch with his own and his family's true feelings, as well as unfamiliar with the oeuvre of Roger Waters and Pink Floyd. Walter would do well to form his own opinions instead of merely serving as his dad's echo chamber:

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Sophie Greenberg: Yeah. I mean, it's gross when he turns into the bug, but I love how matter of fact everything is.
Walter Berkman: Yeah, it's very Kafkaesque.
Sophie Greenberg: [She looks at him oddly. She laughs] Cause it's written by Franz Kafka.
Walter Berkman: Right. I mean, clearly.
===================

Not to say that Professor Berkman doesn't know his literature, or even that his opinion of the relative merits of F. Scott Fitzgerald's "Tender is the Night" compared to "The Great Gatsby" is incorrect; but there is a disconnect when he tries to apply the lessons of literature to real life. He is like Mr. Jones in Bob Dylan's "Ballad of a Thin Man."

You've been with the professors
And they've all liked your looks
With great lawyers you have
Discussed lepers and crooks
You've been through all of
F. Scott Fitzgerald's books
You're very well read
It's well known

Because something is happening here
But you don't know what it is
Do you, Mister Jones?

Sure, he has published a novel, but it bugs him when all he is getting lately is rejection letters, while his wife Joan Berkman (Laura Linney) is getting her novel published, and they're printing excerpts in The New Yorker. And why can't he beat Ivan (William Baldwin), the tennis pro, when he is smarter, has studied the greats of tennis extensively, and Ivan is nothing but a philistine who goes around calling everyone "brother" with an Ebonics inflection?

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Frank Berkman: What's a philistine?
Bernard Berkman: It's a guy who doesn't care about books and interesting films and things.
Bernard Berkman: Your mother's brother Ned is also a philistine.
Frank Berkman: Then I'm a philistine.
Bernard Berkman: No, you're interested in books and things.
==============================

This film reminds me a lot of "Smart People" and the professor played by Dennis Quaid is a lot like Professor Bernard Berkman. Both professors are taken aback when it is another family member, not them, who gets published in The New Yorker. Still I like "The Squid and the Whale" better because "Smart People" plays more like a conventional Romantic Comedy while TSATW unfolds with the quirky cadences of real life.

Maybe you are wondering what the significance of the title is, but that question is addressed, just watch the movie. A few other questions need to be answered immediately.

Q: How ironic is it to have Jeff Daniels, who was Dumb to Jim Carrey's Dumber in "Dumb and Dumber" playing a professor who thinks he's smarter than everyone?

A: Very ironic, if you'll allow a rather more fluid definition of irony than the one given by Ethan Hawke in "Reality Bites."

Q: Do you ever confuse Jeff Daniels with Dave Coulier (pronounced Cool-yay), who played Joseph 'Joey' Gladstone in 193 episodes of "Full House" from 1987 to 1995?

A: I used to confuse them; but they are not the same guy. "You Oughta Know" that it was Coulier who was Mr. Duplicity in the song by Alanis Morissette; and they met at a celebrity hockey game.

Q: Who is Owen Kline? I keep getting him mixed up with Clive Owen. And it was hard enough keeping him and Owen Wilson straight.

A: I have the same problem; but new comer Owen Kline is the son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates. He has inherited a tremendous amount of talent from both parents. In "The Squid and the Whale" he plays the younger brother, Frank Berkman.

Q: What is up with Walter? Why is he so conflicted about his girlfriend, Sophie Greenberg (Halley Feiffer)?

A: In case you haven't noticed, she clearly resembles his mother, Joan Berkman (Laura Linney), and that clearly exacerbates his already severe Oedipus complex.

Q: When Walter Berkman is discussing Franz Kafka's story "The Metamorphosis" with Sophie Greenberg, he calls it Kafka-esque. Apart from the redundancy, that rang a bell. Where have I heard that word before?

A: In Woody Allen's 1977 film, "Annie Hall" the following exchange takes place:

Pam: Sex with you is really a Kafka-esque experience.
Alvy Singer: Oh. Thank you.
Pam: I mean that as a compliment.

Q: If Diane Keaton was Annie Hall, then who was Pam?

A: Pam was played by Shelley Duvall.

Q: Didn't Annie Hall win a ton of Oscars, very unusual for a comedy?

A: Yes, it won for best picture, best screenplay, best director, and Diane Keaton won best actress. Woody Allen was also nominated for best actor.

Q: The acting in "The Squid and the Whale" is so good, have any of these people ever won an Oscar?

A: Though Daniels no doubt deserves one for "Dumb and Dumber;" as does Baldwin for "Sliver" and "Fair Game;" and Linney has been nominated for three Oscars; only Anna Paquin has won so far, for "The Piano."

Q: Anna Paquin? Didn't she play Jeff Daniels' daughter in "Fly Away Home?" Now she is his love interest. How long ago was that?

A: "Fly Away Home" was released in 1996, and then here she is in 2005 with the whale from "The Squid and the Whale."

Q: That seems like it would make filming their scenes pretty awkward. How did they get through it?

A: Jeff Daniels has said that they tried not to think about, you know... geese.

Q: When was Anna Paquin born?

A: On the 24th of July in 1982, in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

Q: Did "The Squid and the Whale" win any Oscars in other categories?

A: No, but writer/director Noah Baumbach was nominated for his script, which is based on his and his brother's own experiences going through their parent's divorce.

Q: "The Squid and the Whale" is rather quirky, but also realistic. What would you say is Noah Baumbach's quirkiest work?

A: That would have to be 2004's "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" which he wrote along with the film's director, Wes Anderson.

Q: Wasn't Owen Kline in that one? Or was it Clive Owen?

A: No, it was Owen Wilson.

Q: Are you sure?

A: Positive. Owen Wilson is a frequent collaborator with Wes Anderson, as is Noah Baumbach, but for some reason only Owen Kline was in this one.

Q: You are so smart. Are you sure you aren't a philistine?

A: Positive.

Q: How do you know so much?

A: I use Internet Movie Database (IMDB dot com) and the online collaborative encyclopedia, wikipedia (wikipedia dot org) to verify all my facts.


The Savages (2007) .... Laura Linney was Wendy Savage
Jindabyne (2006) .... Laura Linney was Claire
Kinsey (2004) .... Laura Linney was Clara McMillen
She's All That (1999) .... Anna Paquin was Mackenzie Siler
Hurlyburly (New Line Platinum Series) (1998) .... Anna Paquin was Donna
Fly Away Home (1996) .... Jeff Daniels was Thomas "Tom" Alden and Anna Paquin was his daughter, Amy Alden
Dumb and Dumber (1994) .... Jeff Daniels was Harry Dunne
Sliver (Unrated Edition) (1993) .... William Baldwin was Zeke Hawkins
The Piano (1993) .... Anna Paquin was Flora McGrath
... aka La leçon de piano (France)
The Purple Rose of Cairo (1985) .... Jeff Daniels was both Tom Baxter and Gil Shepherd

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Walter Berkman: It's Welles' masterpiece, really. Many people think it's Citizen Kane, but Magnificent Ambersons, if it hadn't been ruined by the studio, would've been his crowning achievement. As it is, it's still brilliant. It's the old story, genius not being recognized by the industry.
Lance: It sounds great. Who's in it?
Walter Berkman: Orson Welles? I don't know, I haven't seen it yet. I've seen stills.
=======================

5/5 Brilliant expose of contemporary Family life
  by Rodney J. Moss
This is so far from Hollywood and deserves a wide audience. Cleverly crafted in that, quite frequently it feels like we're voyeurizing, until a barely detected shudder of the hand-held camera pulls us back to the film's artifice. Brilliant performances by all involved, considering that we're knife edged on the disclosure of embarrassing scenes of self disclosure from moment to moment. The hysterical, uproarious laughter by the unsympathetic wife, the pompous fraility of the father, the confession of the older boy that he'd assumed unacknowledged ownership of a Pink Floyd song because he felt he'd written it, just a few of the poignant scenes. Other reviwers are keen to lay out the script for you. But if you are ready to plunge, I'd recommend you jump now.