Excruciating and utterly dark comedy exploring the end of a marriage, and the consequences for all concerned.<br /><br />Set in mid-80s New York, this low budget production contains some brilliantly cringe-making set pieces, as Bernard and Joan Berkman struggle to come to terms with their break up, and how it affects their two sons. Daniels is superb as Bernard, capturing the essence of someone who has obviously invested his entire being in the importance of art, literature and the academic American dream, and his very pretentiousness make him both pathetic and repellent. Linney's Joan is no less complicated, expertly conveying both maternal love and abject selfishness. Her inability to put the brakes on when telling her sons about her relationship experiences and history are hilarious. In Walt, Eisenberg creates a wonderful picture of adolescent priggish arrogance covering up inexperience and naivety – his determination to ape his father's character and views only serves to heighten the discomfort when he is eventually disillusioned. Lastly, director Noah Baumbach has found a beautifully natural performer in Kline, whose reaction to his parents' separation is the antithesis of his brother's – his dislike of his father, his loss of control, his acceptance of his mother's behaviour.<br /><br />Playing like some discomforting variation of a Woody Allen comedy, TSATW has no easy answers. Its low-budget production qualities are often lacking, but for all that it's a brilliant study of familial dysfunction, and frequently hilarious to boot.