Rajeev's Recco: The Squid and the Whale
The Squid And The Whale is the coming-of-age story of two bright boys whose parents are getting a messy divorce. Jeff Daniels and Laura Linney play a married couple whose break-up affects their sons deeply and in a manner really that no one might have imagined. Grappling with growing-up issues of their own, the boys find themselves taking sides, and reacting dramatically to the changes in their lives.
Now, divorce and its effect on children is a subject that has lent itself to so many films, but seldom has this subject inspired such a realistic yet deeply disturbing film. It works because it's completely unsentimental, it doesn't tug at your heartstrings in the way that most films of this nature invariably do, and yet you can't deny the impression it leaves on you and the sense of sympathy you feel for all its leads.
If you're wondering about the title of the film, it refers to a famous exhibit at New York's American Museum of Natural History, which depicts these warring sea creatures. It's an image that is ingrained in one of the boy's minds since childhood because of how frightened he was by it. And if you can do the math, there lies the significance of that title.
