The Squid and the Whale (2005)

☆ ☆ ☆ ½

The Squid and the Whale (2005) – N. Baumbach

Well, I found it almost unbearably intense which probably has less to do with Baumbach’s film about his parents’ divorce and more to do with the fact that my own parents were divorced in the early 1980s (a bit before the time period of the movie – 1987).  Probably none of the events in the movie relate to my own experience (most facts of the situation are different) but somehow the idea of the thing and the emotions that are in play touched some kind of a nerve.  So, is it a comedy?  I couldn’t see it that way.  Instead, it shows a bunch of real people having a lot of trouble with their relationships and the feelings that they have toward each other, past, present and future and basically experiencing sheer torment.  Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney enact the parents well, but Jesse Eisenberg seems a bit constricted as the older son. I couldn’t quite grasp his reactions to the divorce and subsequent events – maybe he is supposed to appear disrupted and confused.  The younger son’s externalizing behaviour seems a bit cliché (and gross) but yeah well these are probably realistic reactions for someone.  So, without blaming my own parents, I’m not sure I really enjoyed watching this movie or recalling these events from my life.  I don’t think I’ll re-watch Kramer vs. Kramer either.