The Squid and the Whale
Reel Critic Grade: B+
Running Time: 88 minutes
Rated: R

Hollywood loves the built-in conflict associated with splitting a marriage. Divorce has been used so much as a central issue in film that the divorce rate now stands at 50 percent (Tinsel Town doesn't really wield that kind of power - they just think they do). This makes it hard to imagine anything unique coming from another telling. Yet, The Squid and the Whale is as fresh as the ink on just signed divorce papers.

The film opens with a tennis match - actually, grudge match would be a better descriptor. On one side of the net are Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and older son Walt (Jesse Eisenberg), on the opposite are wife Joan (Laura Linney) and younger son Frank (Owen Kline), all are dressed in tight, colorful, mid-eighties sports attire (you gotta love the 80's).

I thought the teams were a bit lopsided, strength wise, but it proves a perfect foreshadowing of things to come. Bernard, with a beard wooly enough to make Grizzly Adams jealous, smacks shot after shot directly into Joan and directs Walt to do the same. Walt willingly joins the offensive as Joan protests in vain. She finally quits in disgust. Walt and Frank can only look on as Bernard and Joan collapse into verbal fisticuffs - again.

Bernard is mean. Not inherently, but his waning success as a writer and his jealousy over Joan's new found writing prowess has turned him bitter. And worse, he's an intellectual. Joan has her blemishes too. Bernard's slide into cynical evenness drove her to an affair with another man and the divide between her and Bernard has widened to the breaking point.

Caught in the middle are Walt and Frank. Walt, in his teens, favors his dad and takes Bernard's less-than-parentally-solid advice without question. He'd rather think his way through the pain of his parents break up than deal with the emotion.

But, he's too lazy to work for knowledge and chooses to plagiarize his way and success; he performs Pink Floyd's Hey You at a school talent show, passing it off as his own and tries to impress woman with quotes of Bernard's, but his lack of their true meaning does him more harm than good.

Frank is no less complicated. He chooses mom, but blames her for breaking up the family. He's not a young boy, but not yet a teen and he just wants to feel better. With parents wrapped up in their own problems, Frank turns to masturbation and beer for comfort. There's both humor and sadness in watching Frank act out his frustration and hurt.

Writer/Director Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou) hasn't reinvented the divorce film, just given us an honest portrayal of four lives forever changed by events both in and out of their control. His characters are richly human and uniquely familiar, which gives the film its connective power.

Whether you've gone through divorce or not, you know these people and can relate to their plight and their attempt to deal with it. Baumbach's only misstep, and it's a fairly large one, is taking us on the journey to nowhere. After walking in these character's shoes for 88 minutes, we find ourselves at the end of the film with little more understanding or growth than we had going in.

A few will find the symbolism (also found in the title) provides some level of conclusion, but to me the film just stopped, like a television show that says, "To be continued." A curious end to an otherwise terrific film. It's been said that this film is loosely autobiographical since Baumbach parents divorced in the 1980's and both were accomplished writers (let's just hope Baumbach was more like the Walt character than the Frank character - you'll know what I mean).

The acting in this film is brilliant. Daniels (Good Night Good Luck, The Hours, Speed) gives one of, if not the, finest performance of his career. He wears the role like a second self - even the beard. What a move from the days of Dumb and Dumber. Linney (Mystic River, Love Actually, Kinsey), likewise, brings to Joan a truthfulness that breathes life into the film. And Eisenberg (Roger Dodger, The Village, The Emperor's Club) and Kline (The Anniversary Party) show screen savvy of actors twice their age.

There are no new stories. Each film, hopefully, is a fresh interpretation of an old theme, with original insights into the human condition. With The Squid and the Whale, Noah Baumbach has proven he understands the concept, now he just needs to learn how to finish - along with the other 50 percent hear Aslan roar his approval.

Ken Renner can be reached for comment at: krenner@bendcable.com