Great Character: Bernard Berkman (“The Squid and the Whale”)

The Great Character theme for the month: Struggling Artist. Today: Bernard Berkman from The Squid and the Whale (2005), written by Noah Baumbach. Here is Jason Cuthbert’s weekly Great Character post:

Wes Anderson’s The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou and Fantastic Mr. Fox co-writing partner Noah Baumbach made a large leap forward as a singular screenwriter/director with the 2005 domestic comedy-drama The Squid and the Whale. Utilizing the trusted creative adage “Write what you know,” Baumbach revamped and reinvented familiar memories of mid-1980s Park Slope, Brookyn, as he relived his life in an intellectual family led by patriarchal published novelist, creative writing instructor and struggling artist Bernard Berkman. The Berkman surname may have been inspired by the last name of Noah’s real life father Jonathan Baumbach’s ex-wife Elinor Berkman. But it was Noah Baumbach’s spiky screenplay of irreconcilable differences that sparked prestigious Best Screenplay nominations from the Academy Awards and Writers Guild and wins from the Sundance Film Festival and National Board of Review.

The Squid and the Whale from IMDB:

Based on the true childhood experiences of Noah Baumbach and his brother, The Squid and the Whale tells the touching story of two young boys dealing with their parents’ divorce in Brooklyn in the 1980s.

This fiery family affair that is burning down the Berkman bond is dividing them directly down the line — Bernard Berkman (Jeff Daniels) and his eldest son Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) on one side and wife/mother Joan Berkman (Laura Linney) and youngest son Frank (Owen Kline) on the other. Noah Baumbach smartly establishes this dynamic division visually on a tennis court with Bernard going super competitive and coaxing his racket partner Walt to prey on his mother’s weaknesses. This opening scene not only brings the alliances to the forefront, but we also get initial peaks at Bernard’s manipulative influence over Walt, his selfish tendencies and his splintering marriage.

BERNARD BERKMAN: If you can, try and hit it at your mother’s backhand. It’s pretty weak.

There is a stinky odor of arrogance that Bernard exudes whenever he isn’t the center of attention. He parades his past experience around any unwitting onlooker like his wisdom is a holiday within itself. He will also give the proverbial middle finger to masterful men of letters, even giants whose shoes may completely consume him.

BERNARD BERKMAN: What is it about high school; you read all the worst books by good writers.

Bernard Berkman seems to base the value of a man on his mental, not physical abilities. Although he himself plays tennis, the idea of his wife evolving beyond their divorce with a man who not just plays tennis, but teaches it strikes him as some kind of epic fail.

BERNARD BERKMAN: Why is your mother dating all these jocks? Very uninteresting men.

Bernard’s elder son and “mini-me” protégé Walt not only repeats his father’s “filet of the neighborhood” self-made clichés, but goes as far as to ask his dad to autograph a book Bernard wrote. Bernard coddles Walt’s literary cheerleading and rants against younger son Frank’s lack of scholarly aspirations. But ironically, it is Walt that only pretends to be cut from the academic cloth, having never actually read his father’s books or many of those that daddy has recommended. Walt even plagiarizes Pink Floyd for a talent show to appear impressive. Frank on the other hand, makes no qualms about never wanting to walk in his father’s footsteps and would rather be a tennis guy like his coach and his mother’s new lover Ivan (William Baldwin). Clearly Bernard struggles with the realization that his manipulation tactics that work like a charm on Walt are worthless with Frank.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lS1KFyakAPE

Bernard makes it obvious which son he favors; mostly do to Walt’s immediate willingness to defend his father, regardless of how self-absorbed and careless Bernard’s actions become. Even when Bernard casually serves the boys veal cutlets off of his uncarpeted kitchen floor, it is Walt who overlooks this culinary mishap.

But the blurred line between Bernard and Walt gets a tad too close to creepy when they both make a play at being intimate with one of Bernard’s creative writing students, much closer to Walt’s age than Bernard’s. There is a side of Bernard that teeters toward being Walt’s age minus the long-term relationship approach to romance. But when it happens blatantly under the same roof he shares with the impressionable Walt, there is an uncomfortable boundary that gets trespassed across in Walt’s blind eye vision of his dad.

BERNARD BERKMAN: She’s a very risky writer, Lili. Very racy. I mean, exhibiting her cunt in that fashion is very racy.

Joan Berkman’s rising literary star of success mirrors the speed of downward spiraling that Bernard’s penmanship career is being crushed by. It is as if by not accepting responsibility for the marital missteps that he has contributed to, and magnifying Joan’s indiscretions, he can strive to remain a hero in his son’s eyes — well, at least in Walt’s.

BERNARD BERKMAN: I think it was important to your mother that I achieve some type of commercial success. And when I didn’t meet her expectations in that area…

As Walt experience’s Bernard’s immature romantic advice and begins to realize the egotistical manner in which his father invisibly raised him, Bernard struggles in accepting that his grip over his family members has disappeared.

BERNARD BERKMAN: Would you go ring the bell. I hate walking up those steps. It’s very uncomfortable for me. Very painful. I use to live in this house, as you know.

Bernard Berkman may have to rebuild his own human spirit by hand, without the full support of the three family members that seem to feel more like his audience rather than his loved one.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VcVDBbEpQx8

For his confident ego disintegrating into ugly arrogance, for his manly ego getting painfully thrashed by his wife’s emotional distance and his artistic ego getting wacked by a sledge hammer of harsh career-stalling reality — Bernard Berkman is a multi-layered GREAT CHARACTER among fascinating struggling artists in cinema.

To be a writer requires a certain amount of ego. In Bernard’s case, a big ego. Yet in some ways, that’s what makes him so fascinating, to see his ego get in the way of possible positive human interactions time and time again. The movie portrays him at a critical juncture of his life. He and Llewyn Davis, cut from the same cloth.

Thank you, Jason, for this post and the entire month-long series featuring Struggling Artist characters.

Anybody a fan of Noah Baumbach like I am? Look forward to reading your thoughts in comments.

You may follow Jason on Twitter: @A2Jason.