The Squid And The Whale

Review by Tim Basham

If actors were measured by the number of times they’ve appeared in a film with non-humans, Jeff Daniels would be our biggest star. From geese (Fly Away Home) to spiders (Arachnophobia) to aliens (My Favorite Martian) to dogs (101 Dalmations and Because of Winn-Dixie) Daniels has been the “go-to guy” for film studios in need of an actor with animal instincts. So excuse us if we rolled our eyes upon hearing the title of Daniels’ latest film The Squid and the Whale.

“Who’s he playing now?” I wondered. “Captain Nemo?”

My cynicism quickly fell away, however, when I saw the film that may earn Daniels his first Oscar nomination for his performance as Professor Bernard Berkman, a husband and father whose failure in self-analysis is killing his marriage. But the real casualties are his two sons Frank (Owen Kline) and Walt (Jesse Eisenberg). Walt’s character is based on Writer/Director Noah Baumbach’s true-life experience in 1980’s Brooklyn.

Bernard is a bitter, self-important author. But it’s been a long time since he wrote a successful novel. Making matters worse for his already fragile ego, his wife Joan (Laura Linney) is getting her first book published and his son’s tennis coach (William Baldwin) easily beats Bernard in tennis and begins seeing his wife when the Berkmans separate. All the painful scenes of joint custody are played out as Bernard finds a run down house to raise his kids on “his days” each week. 

It is soon evident that both parents are sacrificing their children’s emotional well being to fulfill their own wants and desires. The youngest, Frank, is discovering certain sexual feelings and begins to display them in an inappropriate manner during elementary school. High schooler Walt’s unquestioning adulation of his father eventually leads to great uncertainty for Walt who is exploring sex and relationships.

The entire cast gives worthy performances, including Anna Paquin as one of Bernard’s graduate students who moves into his house and has an affair with him which, in one of those weird cinema-zone moments, reminds me that Paquin played Daniels’ daughter in Fly Away Home. But Daniels is the center of the film. Based on Baumbach’s own father, Bernard carries his intellect like a weapon, dismissing anyone whose opinions conflict with his own. He tells Frank that his tennis coach is a “philistine” and to stay away from him. His ex-agent was fired, he tells Walt, because of remarks he made about Bernard’s beloved Knicks. Daniels plays Bernard’s hypocrisies and weaknesses with such a commanding and understated bearing that it’s easy to see how his students fall under his spell. But Bernard is all talk and no action.

The story could have gone the direction of a neat, well-packaged Lifetime Channel movie-of-the-week. But during a pivotal scene when Bernard concedes that he could do a better job in their relationship and offers to make changes in a speech that he obviously believes will fix things, Baumbach’s script gives Joan a response that’s refreshingly real.

Over the years, Daniels has had some shining moments beyond Dumb and Dumber—Woody Allen’s The Purple Rose of Cairo, the greenhorn hero Col. Joshua Chamberlain in Gettysburg, Clint Eastwood’s neighbor in Blood Work. But for an actor who has played leading roles for more than 20 years, he’s rarely achieved the critical acclaim accorded other actors with similar longevity. With his appearance in Squid and this year’s dramatic Good Night, and Good Luck this may be Daniels’ very human moment.

4 out of 5

The Squid And The Whale
Australian release: 13th April, 2006
Cast: Jeff Daniels, William Baldwin, Laura Linney, Anna Paquin, Jesse Eisenberg
Director: Noah Baumbach
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