Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ

Hilarious and humane, The Squid And The Whale is a terrific tragi-comedy exploring the fall-out from a mid-80s divorce. Drawing on his own background, writer/director Noah Baumbach brings an unflinching ring of truth to this tale of two Brooklyn brothers (Jesse Eisenberg, Owen Kline) struggling to come to terms with the acrimonious break-up between their writer parents (Jeff Daniels, Laura Linney). From self-delusion to self-abuse, Baumbach captures his characters' traumas to a tee. What's more, he gets the job done in under 85 minutes.

The thriftiness of Baumbach's storytelling stands out from the first scene, a tetchy tennis match in which Bernard (Daniels) and eldest son Walt (Eisenberg) double up against Joan (Linney) and young Frank (Kline). As it turns out, this is how the battle lines are drawn post-separation: chip off the old block Walt sides with Bernard, blaming mom's infidelities for the split. Frank, meanwhile, stays with Joan, who stirs up more resentment when she starts seeing chilled-out tennis coach William Baldwin (whose every sentence ends with "....brother.").

"NAILS THE PERIOD PERFECTLY"

All the performances hit the mark, but special praise has to go to Daniels for bringing a bedraggled pathos to the astoundingly pompous Frank, a figure who'd be flat-out hateful in another actor's hands. Baumbach nails the period perfectly with nods to everything from Tangerine Dream to Blue Velvet; but this is just the icing on a cake that's stacked with layers of bittersweet empathy. You'll laugh, you'll wince, you'll wonder why films twice this long are rarely half as good.