MovieChat Forums > The Squid and the Whale (2005) Discussion > No Resolution?

No Resolution?

posted 15 years ago by taijiquan12
21 replies | jump to latest

I've seen this twice now and I'm really suprised that this was nominated for an Oscar in writing. I just don't get it, how can you leave out one of the more crucial elements to storytelling and still get so much praise for it?

Don't get me wrong, this movie had good characters, dialouge, and acting. I also really liked the way it was shot and it got me invested in the movie. But it was really annoying how it just ended all of a sudden. I understand this movie wasn't the highest budgeted, so if that's why it was cut off, then I understand, but if it was written to be that way, I think that's just lazy.

They started to develop the younger brother, Frank, in all of these disturbing ways, yet they didn't show anything come of it. There wasn't even an indication of where he would head. I really almost think that the movie could've been done without Frank. Many of the scenes with him seemed to be thrown in for shock value and to show what the parent's neglect was doing to them, but they didn't really finish developing Frank, his character was one-dimensional, just a device to deliver a point and add weirdness, but not as real a person as the rest. A proper resolution/change in his character would've changed this.

The movie's ending really just focuses on Walt and his epiphany after seeing the exhibit that the movie's title comes from, which isn't satisfying because they've introduced important characters other than Walt who I felt needed to have some closure brought to their arcs as well.

If the movie was intentionally ended abruptly, to make some kind morose point about how happy endings aren't real or something, it didn't work, it was just poor writing. It didn't have to have a happy ending per say, but some kind of preparation for the climax would've been nice, as it seemed that the director just threw in scene after scene without really considering that his story does have to come to end.
Oh well, maybe I'm just a "philistine" who just doesn't get it, not indie enough to grasp "true art"....

"Bulls**t MR.Han Man!!"--Jim Kelly in Enter the Dragon

[–] disillusioned_cipher 15 years ago

What would have satisfied you?

[–] kpd0943 15 years ago

There is resolution. At the film's end Walt's hero worship of his father has dimmed, and he's become readier to move on.

[–] ShroudOfFrost 15 years ago

And you obviously didn't read the OP's post. He states that there is a resolution for Walt, but not one for Frank.

To the OP, I have to say that I feel like Frank didn't need much of a resolution. He was siding with his mother, and realizes at the same time she's not perfect. Frank just can't stand his father. He realizes that Bernard is a pretentious bastard and he just can't take it. Bernard hates everything Frank likes. They just clash. It will be healthier for Frank to stay with his mother and Ivan. No, the masturbation conflict and drinking wasn't resolved, but that is just adolescence. For there to be a resolution to that story line wouldn't have made sense. We would have to shoot forward 8 years, which would have made the movie uneven, and it's also just a point of life that everyone goes through. In my opinion, his masturbation and drinking had little to do with his parents getting a divorce.

hitrecord.org

[–] robert_lorello 15 years ago

I feel like a lot of these things you just grow out of.

Also, why does almost everyone suck on these boards. Everyone just seems like complete *beep* like the OP's last sentence, and all the stupid random fights. I feel as if everyone here writing about this movie is at least above average in intelligence considering the style of this movie. I wonder if that has something to do with everyone acting so annoying.

"Travelling, Swallowing, Dramamine."

[–] buff-29 15 years ago

Uncreative, dull people like taijiquan should keep their views to themselves. It (sorry, but I can't tell if it is male, female, or canine) has read some kind of article about what should be in a screenplay and thinks it notices that element is not included in Squid, and its posting here is the result. Lord help us.

[–] dccheever 15 years ago

Yeah he should watch "Adaptation" and pay close attention to the McKee scenes.

[–] kw-turner 15 years ago

I thought that this was an excellent film, in part because there was no reolution.

I saw it as a vignette - a simple sliver of the life that this family is living. It's not supposed to have a beginning, middle and end in the traditional sense of storytelling because it isn't a whole story. It's simply a small fragment of the family's largely fragmented life.

Most of our life stories don't have resolutions the way film and stories tend to do. That's what I think the filmmakers were trying to accomplish here.

I could be wrong, of course - it's simply my opinion.

[–] Osmell37 15 years ago

A couple of the posts say that Frank's behavior is just a result of his adolescence and has nothing to do with his parents divorce, but I think nothing could be further from the truth. I think a lot of the issues the sons have in the movie will be with them for the rest of their lives (if they were real people). Not saying that Frank is going to be masturbating in libraries as an adult but a lot of his actions stem from his relationship with his parents and the unhealthy environment he was raised in. And so maybe the ending of the movie is just a way of saying that things probably wont change much from this point forward. The underlying issues will continue to go unaddressed and negatively influence their actions and relationships as they grow up.

OR, what kw-turner said in the previous post. I like that idea. Good job old boy

[–] Dejay 12 years ago

As you point out, I think it has less to do with the separation as with his father. He puts up a peanut in his nose during the conversation at the dinner table that is a fight below the surface. The father tries to pull Walt further into his world of evaluating everything for it's worth. It's like a protest against his father. This happens before they announce their divorce, but obviously the marriage had failed long before that.

I also loved the masturbation / sperm scenes. They are not only weird, it's also a kind of powerful action, a symbol of creativity. When he smears his sperm on that locker I thought he kind of made a present to his crush. Of course a disgusting present like a dog would do when he brings in some dead animal. I loved that little perv, he was my favorite character in the movie.

As for the resolution, Frank giving Walt the cat and calling him brother is a resolution. It's an active choice not to let their parents interfere with the choices they make. That is similar to what Walt does in the end, face his true self and not let others tell him what to be, think or say.

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] criztu 14 years ago

They started to develop the younger brother, Frank, in all of these disturbing ways, yet they didn't show anything come of it.

while you might find Frank's behavior disturbing, Walt's behavior was equally disturbing by my standards. what come of Frank's ways is he did get his parents attention. at the end he cut himself off from his father, stayed with his mom and Ivan.

If the movie was intentionally ended abruptly

Imagine you take a picture of people on the street. Do you need closure or arcs or preparation for climax in that picture ? look at this film as a picture of life, not a story trying to teach you something.

[–] tmarcus 14 years ago

In my opinion there is both morale and resolution.

Walt is really the main character (and maybe the director as a young boy). The movie is really about him not his little brother. The title of the film is the morale and resolution: When he was young he dared not watch the squid and whale in the museum (kids dont face realities of life,they dont understand complexeties and are spared from the tough truths of life). In the end he becomes an adult when he faces the squid n whale - and realizes that his father is not a saint, that he should not live his life as a copy of his fathers, and that he himself is not perfect - which are all tough facts of life (unless you are pope benedict ;))

Faced with this he is ready to move on.

[–] Gloede_The_Saint 14 years ago

Perhaps this is why it get recognized? Resolution is usually just the same as lazy writing. Life does not have resolutions.

Somebody here has been drinking and I'm sad to say it ain't me - Allan Francis Doyle

[–] tmarcus 14 years ago

"Life does not have resolutions"

ehh... though I to some degree understand you, I have to disagree:

starting to crawl -> getting to walk
stydying hard -> getting a job
earning some money -> getting to use them on roses
giving a girl roses -> getting to kiss her
telling you love her -> getting to live with her
making love -> getting a baby

and if you dont find my resolutions relevant well there is that one final resolution that escapes none of us and we really dont wish to think about that much, so we focus on all the above;)

[–] kellysagaser 14 years ago

I kind of like that. I think the whole point was to have no resolution at least for the time being. It's more realistic. Maybe it could have had a more clear cut ending but I'm pretty sure the writer/director made it so there was no permanent resolution intentionally, not out of laziness. Very few movies have ever done this and I like it. I found the ending super annoying because you don't know what happens to the rest of everyone else, but once again I think that was the writer's point.

[–] tommytwin 13 years ago

I agree that there could have been more resolution for Frank's character. My impression of Frank, though, was that he was moving in a good direction when the film ended.

Frank's mood and gradually gets better after he sees his mother spending time with Ivan.

Frank's behavior is disturbing throughout the film, but I think the film shows him as hopeful by the films end, as he attached more strongly to his mother.

In a similar way, we don't get to see Walt's 'metamorphosis' either, except we see him start to question, come to an epiphany, etc.

In that way, it could be said that Frank reached his turning point earlier than Walt, i.e. when he started smiling and calling people "my brother," pointedly disassociating from his father.