Rating: R
Genre:
Drama
Theatrical Release: 10/05/2005(USA
Release Date: 03/21/2006
SubTitles: English/French
Dubbed: English/French
Sound: DD5.1
Run Time: 81 Minutes
Flags: Adult Situations, Strong Sexual Content, Adult Humor, Profanity, Alcohol Consumption, Youth Substance Use
Distributor/Studio: Sony Pictures Home Entertainment
Two boys learn the hard way about how a marriage falls apart in this independent
comedy drama.
Bernard (
Jeff Daniels) is a novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline as he spends more time teaching and less time writing. His wife,
Joan (
Laura Linney), meanwhile, has recently begun publishing her own work to widespread acclaim, which only increases the growing tension between them. One day,
Bernard and
Joan's two sons -- 16-year-old
Walt (
Jesse Eisenberg) and 12-year-old
Frank (
Owen Kline) -- are told that their parents are separating, with
Bernard renting a house on the other side of their Park Slope, Brooklyn, neighborhood. As the parents set up a schedule for spending time with their children,
Walt and
Jesse can hardly imagine that things could get more combative between their folks, but they do, as
Joan begins dating
Ivan (
William Baldwin),
Frank's tennis instructor, and
Bernard starts sharing the house with
Lili (
Anna Paquin), one of his students. Meanwhile, the two boys begin taking sides in the battle between their parents, with
Walt taking after his father and
Frank siding with his mom. Based on writer/director
Noah Baumbach's own childhood experiences with his parents' divorce,
The Squid and the Whale won prizes for writing and direction at the
2005 Sundance Film Festival.
~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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