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Noah Baumbach has created a terrific film and probably exorcised some personal demons along the way. Definitely not a film for the whole family, but it offers much insight and many messages. Also the use of the soundtrack is downright brilliant including key music from Pink Floyd and Loudon Wainright. Writer/Director (and Wes Anderson collaborator) Baumbach presents a semi-autobiographical therapy session where he unleashes the anguish and turmoil that has carried over from his childhood. The result is an amazing insight into what many people go through in a desperate attempt to try and make their family work. When watching this, it reminded me of all the disappointing moments that I had growing up when my parents squabbled between themselves from lack understanding and facing of responsibility, which seemed to be centered around the inner workings of the total family unit. As you well know, many people live their lives the way they see it for purely separate motives, and this film encompasses all of that feeling head on. Although the main trouble this family had was unfaithfulness, which is usually the final nail in the coffin of a struggling relationship anyway. Jeff Daniels, although his character Bernard is usually pompous and self absorbed, delivers his best role ever and never fails to hit the mark at giving you the perfect rendition of a struggling parent destined to hold on and remain in charge of his crumbling family. The broken family really becomes the plot of the film as we see the two young males try and make sense of it all. Jessie Eisenberg (brilliant in "Roger Dodger") & Owen Kline (son of Kevin Kline and Phoebe Cates) are both scene stealers as they struggle in their own distinct ways with their separated parents and their continuance through adolescence. Watching Eisenberg's worship his dad and subsequently realize the truth is just amazing stuff. Kline's outbursts on the tennis court and at the ping pong table are nothing compared to his discovery of alcohol and self-pleasure. Although we know this is why there are so many millions of children that are affected in a divorce situation, it almost makes you want to do away with the family unit all together, since it can eventually lead to all forms of pain and heartache for adolescence. In an awkward and hackneyed sort of way, you actually grow to love and appreciate each and every member of this family. this film captures the process of personality inheritance within families. The interaction between Bernard and Walt is almost painful to watch at times, but the father's dynamic yields a completely loving & enriched portrait of a loving father, which is made perfectly clear toward the end of the film when Bernard has a spell and winds up in the hospital. Beyond just that father/son dynamic, the story is so poignant without ever getting sappy - a true accomplishment for a family drama involving divorce. Nothing hits you over the head. Nothing seems too forced. While there's plenty of confusion, discomfort, & alienation, a sense of love shines through, & I couldn't help but get attached to all of the characters. Brooklyn College was a hotbed of activism and liberal arts when I first encountered Jonathan Baumbach, rechristened Bernard in the film, a sly wink at Jonathan's mentor and hero, Bernard Malamud). The arrogance & complete lack of self awareness is perfectly captured by Daniels in his over-the-top performance which, amazingly, underplays the actual father.Read full review
This was billed as a comedy. It wasn't. Unless it's funny to watch miserable, irrevocably damaged people doing horrible things to each other, themselves, their children, and your own youthful idealism. For me, it was like getting poked in the eye with a pencil -- over and over. I kept standing there, expectant, hopeful, naive, thinking maybe I wouldn't get poked in the eye any more times, but inevitably it came -- the eye poke. The movie is a long gauntlet of awkward situations, and unforgettably dreadful moments. There is no forgiveness, no redemption, no hope -- there is only wound heaped upon scar, from parent to child and back again, and from spouse to spouse -- kind of like the tennis that is a motif in the film. If you feel the need to cringe, here is your opportunity. I don't think my shoulders relaxed once throughout the movie, although their were many times when I stopped cringing with horror in order to clutch my mouth and say, "He did NOT just do/say that." I am not a person who needs things to be all joyful or demands the happy ending. I have never said, nor will I ever say, "Can't we all just get along?" However, tomorrow is my ninth wedding anniversary, and this movie makes marriage, parenthood, or really any relationship at all with another person just seem like a toxic prison, from which there is no escape but nihilism. NEAT! Happy anniversary to me!! For what it's worth, I also predicted everything that happened in the film as we went through it, including the development of the motif in the title. It was predictable in the wide view, but as for the many little barbs and spears that are thrown along the way -- unless you're as bloodless and depraved as the characters in the movie, you'll never see them coming. I think, as a sidenote, this is the best acting Jeff Daniels has ever done. Pity it's in such a bamboo-shoots-under-the-fingernails of a movie.Read full review
This movie is extremely difficult to watch. It's the old rubber-necking at the roll-over on the freeway syndrome. Yes, the characters are unsympathetic and are slowly boiling in their own neurotic quagmires. BUT...that's what makes this film so good. Violence on a psychological level is more difficult to deal with than the day-to-day fare of buildings exploding as in some movies. However, don't take it as an indictment on all society. These are just four messed up people who are almost beyond redemption. Jeff Daniels evokes such hatred as he quietly destroys his children's lives. An acting job so convincing, I wanted to hunt him down for the damage he caused. Reminiscent of Nurse Ratchett from Cuckoo's Nest.
I really didn't know much about this movie when I got it except that is was semi-autobiographical. But after seeing it I think it is a spot on depiction of family life and divorce in the 1980's. Good acting overall and Jeff Daniels is so good he made me cringe as he went through his emotional arc.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
If you don't like off color language, you won't like this movie. If you see such language as part of life, you will love this movie. the characters are interesting, the story true to life.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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