Patrick and Jessica: Don't Read This Review

Starting today, I'm going to make it a point to share my two thoughts on the movies I see. Movie reviews will most likely become a regular feature on this blog. This is the first:

The Squid and the Whale
Director: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney
Rated: R (For strong sexual content, graphic dialogue and language)

"The Squid and the Whale" is a movie that shows us something we'd rather not see: The ugly side of divorce. I've always been fascinated with the way Hollywood portrays divorce. They never really portray it as something that is truly horrible, just as a "touch luck/too bad" thing that happens to many people. In other words, divorce is a part of human nature, and you might as well get used to it. Of course, people who have been effected by divorce will tell you otherwise. The fact that so many divorcees can watch Hollywood movies about divorce shows just how timid and kind Hollywood is to the subject.

This is not one of those movies. This movie will not hold your hand and demand you not be scared by divorce. This movie does no less then get in your face and practicably beats you over the head with the horrible consequences of divorce. You may actually feel yourself worn out by the time the movie is finished. If you couldn't guess by now, the movie is about a married couple named Bernard and Joan, and their two kids Frank and Walt. Bernard and Joan have a rocky relationship. Bernard used to be a huge author, but now has trouble getting his books published. Joan used to have little interest in writing, but was inspired by her husband to try writing herself.

Now the tables have turned some twenty years later, and now Joan is the successful writer and Bernard is the one with no career. They now fight all the time, with Bernard getting frustrated that he seems to be losing his power status with the family, and Joan feeling like her husband would rather have her on a leash. Soon the parents decide to divorce, to the surprise of no one (even to Frank and Walt). The kids aren't really surprised when their parents announce that they are splitting up, but they still can't really comprehend how things came to be this way. What's worse is that both kids have a parent he likes better, and the parents use this to their advantage.

In what comes as the biggest blow to the audience, each of the grownup's start telling their kids stories about the other parents and giving that kid special privileges. Bernard tells Walt about an affair Joan had while they were married, and Joan lets Frank drink beer and read pornographic magazines. The bait serves it's purpose, and before you know it Frank and Walt have become pawns in their parents bickering match, and neither side will waver. A particularly heartbreaking scene comes in when Walt starts dating a girl. Both his parents have advice for him, but none of the advice he receives in on the same level, and Walt messes up with the girl because he can't decide which parent to listen to.

Meanwhile, Frank picks up a couple of (truly disgusting) bad habits in order to get his parents attention, only to find out that his parents aren't really interested in solving the problem, but are rather more interested in seeing how they can put the blame for this behavior on one another. The squid and the whale is a metaphor, but what the metaphor is I won't tell you. As stated before, "The Squid and the Whale" is a tough movie. It takes a problem we are all too familiar with, and it presents it to us in away that many of us are unaware exists. The movie has some problems (the dad's affair with a student could have been handled better), but it is an excellent achievement in film (though not major mind you).

The movie has been playing in limited release, and it is definitely worth hunting down. It may be something you don't normally expect to see from your movies, but it does pay off quite well.

Grade: B