The Squid and the Whale - 2005 * * * * *

Joint custody blows.

I'm not surprised this film has won awards, including the Sundance, for I have not seen such a realistic and gritty portrayal of a family going through divorce for a long time. What I really liked about the movie was that it wasn't forced. It didin't feel like the children were trying to act in a particular way or approach the subject in a way that they had been told to. It all seemed very natural and pretty uncomfortable in parts as well just like it would in real life. In some places it felt like we were watching a real family from a hidden camera. Understandably the two children are devestated about their parents seperating and both react in different ways, the younger becoming sexually disturbed and the older deciding to take out all the agression he has kept inside onto his young and naive girlfriend. Laura Linney is brilliant in her part of exhausted and let down wife and Jeff Daniels really shows how far his acting skills reach as the pompous, arrogant and mean-spirited husband. Before long the children are being tossed backwards and forwards as they alternate days with father and mother and it starts to become too much for everyone involved to cope with.
Amazing performances and a wonderfully realistic portrayal.