A movie about a family crisis reminds me of another unpopular movie, The Tourist. This is the first film directed by Baumbach that I have seen. Looking back at his previous works, it can be seen that the director is keen to explore the complex emotions between family and people. The next director Baumbach is worth looking forward to is him This year's new work "Marriage" is still about family.
Let's talk about the characters in "The Squid and the Whale", the Berkmans.
Father Bernard and mother Whale are both writers. From my father, I can feel the strong machismo and the disgusting narcissism of being an intellectual, which is probably why, compared to the role of the whale, I just can't feel sympathy for Bernard. The character's personality is inherently distorted, which can be seen before the family crisis hits. At the beginning of the film, the family is playing tennis. From this episode, you can see the first contradiction caused by the father's damn competitive spirit and self-righteousness. What is outrageous is that he also uses his character in the education of his sons. He tries to build a strong image in the hearts of his sons. He pays great attention to winning and losing in every game with his son. Of course, he will win. side (naive). The person in the family who can't stand Bernard's personality the most is the youngest son, Frank.
Although Whale is a writer like Bernard, the two have different starting points. From one of the dialogues of the eldest son Walter, we can see that the mother became a writer after being with his father. Walter believes that his mother's success should be attributed to his father, but his mother derailed and left his father. At this time, Bernard's career was at a disadvantage, and he was a poor writer who achieved nothing, which gave the whale the title of "vanity". , both the son and the husband think so, that the whale left the house because he looked down on Bernard. Actually not. The outbreak of this crisis has been brewing for a long time. Whale started cheating three years ago. For her, her family is only the shackles of family affection, and Bernard's character is only the fuse of the crisis.
Let’s talk about the morbidly distorted family ecology of contemporary society reflected in the movie, divorce has become the norm, and “joint custody” is rampant. This seemingly palliative legal guardianship is in fact only concerned with the interests of adults, and it will only make matters worse for children. Walter and his brother Frank run back and forth between the two "homes" with their parents' time allotted, and the meaning of "home" is slowly eroded between the distances.
The best performance in the whole movie, I think, is Jesse Eisenberg's eldest son Walter, a boy who is still young but still immature. Like father and son, Walter inherited his father's personality, and he greatly admired his father. Until he witnessed his father and the girl he liked being "stealing", the image of his father was officially disintegrated in his mind. At this point in the story, the director has managed to draw a gap between every character in the family. Bernard made a gesture to the whale, "bitch" before his accidental admission. The whale is indeed a bitch, but when Bernard uttered the word, it was more tender. It was a sweet memory between them. Bernard was still trying to save the failed marriage, but in the end the hospital In the scene, neither the whale nor the younger son appeared, only Walter. Squids and whales used to be Walter's nightmare, and now he has to bite the bullet.
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