As a chronicle of divorce, Noah Baumbach’s debut film The Squid and Whale is worth its weight in gold. Baumbach gives great insight to the reactions and complexes that children develop in response to a broken home. He does so unobtrusively, allowing those in the audience, even those who never experienced divorce as a child, to really identify with the pain that engulfs a young, dysfunctional Brooklyn family, modeled on his own. However, the well-written script fails to translate into a cohesive movie, despite its convincing characterization.
Young Frank, whose parent’s divorce coinceides with his first sexual self-explorations, begins leaving his “mark of masculinity” on books in his school library, and on the lockers of the 12-year-old girls whom he loves. He begins talking to himself in the mirror with his shirt off, a beer in hand.
His brother Walt, at that ripe age when sexual experimentation with the opposite sex is a possibility, is so determined to choose his father’s side in the split that he sacrifices his own personal tastes in art and women to win him over. After dumping a girl that he was ashamed of because he thought she might not be up to his father’s standards, Walt learns that his father is fallible and not worthy of his adoration.
While the writing of this film is subtle, powerful, and very touching (Baumbach is a writer, first and foremost), The Squid and Whale fails in its magic as a movie as a whole. Excellent individual parts like the great ‘80s soundtrack, and the romantic portrayal of Park Slope, Brooklyn fail to add up to an exciting cinematic plot. More attention to the movie’s flow would have made this movie much more memorable.
The film is deadpan in the same manner as a Wes Anderson film. It also incorporates many of the stylistic elements characteristic of Anderson, which is not surprising considering that Baumbach has worked closely with him in the past. However, Baumbach’s film lacks the over-zealous and eccentric character development that makes Anderson’s movies so great. You can identify with Frank and Walt, sure, but you can’t throw theme parties based on their characters.
All in all, it would have been more enjoyable to read The Squid and Whale as a novel, rather than see it on screen. The talent of its writer is lost in this particular format, and it doesn’t leave you aching like I think “The Squid and Whale: A Novel” would. This film proves to be a promising debut, but remains just that: a first effort.
