I remember hearing about this movie back when it came out, and I was really curious as to what all the buzz was about. The story sounded good, and Noah Baumbach is a good friend of Wes Anderson, who I really like, and who was also a producer on the film. So, I've always meant to see it, and when I saw it on sale for 4 dollars at Blockbuster, I had to get it.
All in all, The Squid and the Whale was a really good film. The performances are great, even Jeff Daniels doing an all out Bill Murray impersonation (not surprisingly, Bill Murray was previously signed on to that role before dropping out to do Broken Flowers). Laura Linney is amazing as usual, and both of the kids give extremely realistic and emotional performances. And Billy Baldwin is hilarious, as a contemporary-hippie tennis instructor.
Baumbach analyzes very well the stuck-up nature of New York City writers. Jeff Daniels' character is an "intellectual" and scorns people who do not like good movies or interesting things. Laura Linney, also an intellectual, searches for companionship outside of her mind capacity, someone simple and ordinary, almost to escape from herself.
While it's somewhat disturbing to watch the youngest child spiral downhill at such a young age, there is something extremely and disturbingly realistic about the way he is characterized that it is never doubted. And the older kid (who is meant to be Noah Baumbach's character, as the movie is autobiographical) is a whiny, somewhat stuck-up high-schooler. As much as I hate to say it, I could relate to this character in so many ways. It's the fact that Baumbach was writing and analyzing himself as well as the world that surrounded him as a teenager that makes the movie so understandable and so undeniably real.
The divorce of the parents is characterized like a clash between two titans, subtley downplayed to great stylistic effect. Right when it seems as though the two have emotions for each other again, one of them shows a side so savage and so awful that it seems like they will never shift sympathies again. The metaphor of the squid and the whale at the museum exibit is absolutely brilliant (hence the title), making for an amazing ending to a solid film.
Sometimes the movie shifts into the quirkiness of a Wes Anderson comedy, and while in some situations it works very well, in others it takes a little bit away from the film's credibility. I feel as though he should have downplayed the teen angst a little bit, just as he downplayed the clash between the parents a little bit, but I can understand why he wouldn't, considering the film is about him. And the youngest kid kind of disturbed me a little bit, though that shouldn't affect my view of a movie.
All in all, a really great movie, but not quite done to perfection.