argh
Just finished The Squid and the Whale. Wow. Every moment of that movie was uncomfortable. Every. Single. Moment. Yet... it was a good movie.
Difficult, though, because the Jeff Daniels character is so (in my opinion) utterly unsympathetic, I was actually excited when (spoiler alert) he keeled over with an apparent heart attack. My stepfather was a big enough asshole, I don't find them entertaining to watch. I don't have the distance required to appreciate a condescending, grandiose, self-important father-figure. Gag me with a spoon.
But, like I said, it was still somehow a good movie. Teetering on the edge of being too painfully familiar, which helps make it both a well made, thought provoking movie and an uncomfortable experience, all at the same time. Hmm.
I'm still up in the air about it. Anybody else have any thoughts?
Difficult, though, because the Jeff Daniels character is so (in my opinion) utterly unsympathetic, I was actually excited when (spoiler alert) he keeled over with an apparent heart attack. My stepfather was a big enough asshole, I don't find them entertaining to watch. I don't have the distance required to appreciate a condescending, grandiose, self-important father-figure. Gag me with a spoon.
But, like I said, it was still somehow a good movie. Teetering on the edge of being too painfully familiar, which helps make it both a well made, thought provoking movie and an uncomfortable experience, all at the same time. Hmm.
I'm still up in the air about it. Anybody else have any thoughts?
posted by reasonably prudent poet at 11:07 PM
2 Comments:
I agree that it was uncomfortable from beginning to end, but I didn't find any transcendent truth in the discomfort, unfortunately. I simply didn't like it very much.
i agree, i didn't find any transcendent truth in the discomfort either. i want to say it's a "good" movie b/c it documented those lives and that divorce with such painful precision and realism. but as a *story* -- maybe i'm too biased, but a really good story needs dynamic, sympathetic characters and the jeff daniels character was just too much of an asshole. i never saw any redeeming qualities at all, and i was just as uncomfortable with him on the screen as i ever was whenever my own stepfather was around. yuck yuck yuck. and yet... the kids were great, the youngest especially. and laura linney... i'm still on the fence.
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