I grew up with a difficult family situation – financial problems, marriage breaking up – so I understand how things work among the kids.
In this movie The Squid and the Whale (2005), two kids experience unlikeable times as they cope up with their parent’s separation, the joint custody, their parents’ antics, and the perils of growing up. The older kid has his first breakup, attraction with his father’s girlfriend, a case on plagiarism and the realization that his dad is a phony. The younger kid has problems with masturbation and drinking. The mother gets successful with career yet has a thing for relationships with other men. The father is unsuccessful with his career yet is constantly in denial, and brags about his pseudo intellectualism of sorts.
If there is one thing that this movie greatly does, it is mixing up the traits of seemingly unlikeable characters, and successfully showing something delightful.
My most favorite thing about the movie is the fact that the older kid (Jesse Eisenberg) realizes that his dad is a phony at the end – having looked up to him all his life, revered him for all his achievements – yet still does not dismiss respect for him. He realizes that despite his mother’s affairs, it was she who gave him a memory of true happiness – the moment of her and him at the museum looking at a sculpture of The Squid and the Whale.
The Rowing Rooster 