“The squid and the whale” presents the story of life of a nuclear family at war. It is quite an insightful inspection not only of separation of two parents who are at odds with one another, but also its effects on the children. When they setup a schedule for spending time with their children, the two boys are caught up in the emotional upheavals of the split, swinging from parent to parent for a joint custody. The boys soon take sides. The elder one chooses to be with his father while the younger one sides with his mother. Each parent’s shortcomings then gets projected and magnified through the sons. The movie is about conflicts; between the couple, the child and the parent, the intellectual and philistine, identity one manufactures and one’s true self. The parents are so preoccupied with their problems that the children are left lost. It is interesting how they take their children and pit them against one another many times without realization. Bernard Berkman is a novelist whose career has gone into a slow decline and is now reduced to teaching. His wife, Joan meanwhile, discovers a literary talent of her own and has recently begun publishing her own work, which only increases the growing tension between them. It is interesting to note that the two of them are completely different from each other in terms of their personalities and it left me wondering what made them hold on for so long! There is evidence of fierce competition between the couple which is obvious from the