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Imagine if Todd Solondz directed "The Ice
Storm" and you've got a pretty good idea of
what "The Squid and the Whale" is all about.
Writer Noah Baumbach, whose previous claim to
fame was writing "The
Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou" with Wes
Anderson, make his debut behind the camera here
shooting a script he wrote based on his own
adolescence. Baumbach creates four of the most
unique and interesting characters to ever encompass
a family dynamic and then cast four superb actors
to play the roles. The effect is a beautiful,
honest and bold film that is as often as hilarious
as it is troubling.
The cast here is Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney,
Jesse Eisenberg and Owen Kline. Each one of
them provide wonderful and unique touches to
the film that bring forth their own personal
point-of-view into the film. Daniels is a author
in decline who becomes separated from his wife
of 17 years, played by Linney, herself becoming
a noted author (shades of "A Star is Born.")
Eisenberg ("Roger
Dodger") and Kline (son of Kevin Kline and
Phoebe Cates) play their sons. Daniels is indeed
a tour de force here providing a character so
smug and pretentious that we often want to slap
him in the face. Yet, as is testament to Daniels'
immense talents, we also like the man and feel
a sympathy for him. He seems totally lost in
the world and unprepared to meet any sort of
family responsibilities in a realistic way.
His enormous philosophical and intellectual
pretensions makes him an object of hero worship
from teen son Eisenberg who is simply to young
and inexperienced to notice his father's enormous
flaws. Eisenberg plays a sort of miniature version
of Daniels' Bernard, a pretentious bastard in
training who is unable to forgive his mother
for her affairs and sees her betrayal as a slight
to his hero. Throughout the film, Eisenberg's
Walt will become our focal point, our entree
into the film and the family. It is his growth
that we will see here.
Linney plays the mother, Joan, as sort
of a mousey wallflower suddenly coming into
her own. This isn't a hard role for Linney and
she dollops out her great acting in measures
here providing just the right touches for us
to see her character. It's the kind of role
she could play with her eyes closed and we only
wish she had a little more to sink her thespian
teeth into.
But the true find here is Kline as Frank.
This is perhaps the most daring and amazing
juvenile role since Rufus Read performed in
Solondz's "Happiness." Kline is required to
mouth the most vulgar words and enacts some
of the most disturbing sexual images we've ever
seen from a young boy on screen. He performs
amazingly and his unabashed daring in bringing
forth Frank without any shyness or shame is
simply riveting to watch. Baumbach provides
Kline with the perfect backdrop for his unnerving
emerging sexuality by scoring the scenes with
the Tangerine Dream music from "Risky Business"
and the overwhelming darkness created by this
young man's performance and Baumbach's choice
of music gives the film a pulse as mystical
and as intense as any pubescent sexual memory
one might have. It will give you goosebumps.
The only letdown here is that Frank's character
seems abandoned by the film's end. He is left
in limbo.
Baumbach's film is a beautiful and intimate
portrait of an upper middle class family caught
in the midst of breakdown. We witness these
very awkward personal and private moments with
a sense of awe and wonder. Then Baumbach scores
them with music that simply catapults the film
into the stratosphere of greatness. Pink Floyd's
"Hey You," the aforementioned Tangerine Dream,
songs by Loudon Wainwright, and in the film's
intense climax, Lou Reed's "Street Hassle" ring
forth from the theater's speakers and grab onto
our psyche and our souls as if prodding memories
from our own tortured past. Like Walt we are
left with only the option of facing our fears
and our reality like adults, leaving the innocence
and simplicity of what was once our childish
lives in shambles, facing the unknown future
with feet planted firmly and eyes wide open.
Notes:
Also with Billy Baldwin, Anna Paquin and
Ken Leung
Wes Anderson is a producer.
Paquin and Daniels have a minor sex scene
together. The played father and daughter nine
years ago in "Fly Away Home."
Kafka, Mailer and other authors are mentioned
and discussed
A scene from "Blue Velvet" is shown.
Baumbach won the Waldo Salt screenwriter's
award and a directing award at Sundance where
the film premiered in January of 2005. Samuel
Goldwyn began an arthouse run with the film
in October of 2005.
Viewed at the Paramount Theater during
AFF in October of 2005 with Jeff Daniels in
attendance. The film opened at the Arbor in
Austin one week later.
Report Card
Script: A
Acting: A+
Cinematography\Lighting: A+
Special Effects\Make Up: A-
Music: A+
Final Grade: A+
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