In1986, In Brooklyn, New York, the dysfunctional family of pseudo intellectuals composed by the university professor Bernard (Jeff Daniels) and the prominent writer Joan (Laura Linney) split. Bernard is a selfish, cheap and jealous decadent writer that rationalizes every attitude in his family and life and does not accept "philistines" - people that do not read books or watch movies, while the unfaithful Joan is growing as a writer and has no problems with "philistines". Their sons, the teenager Walt (Jesse Eisenberg) and the boy Frank (Owen Kline), feel the separation and take side: Walt stays with Bernard, and Frank with Joan, and both are affected with abnormal behaviors. Frank drinks booze and smears with sperm the books in the library and a locker in the dress room of his school. The messed-up and insecure Walt uses Roger Water's song "Hey You" in a festival as if it was of his own, and breaks with his girlfriend Sophie (Halley Feiffer). Meanwhile Joan has an affair with Frank's tennis teacher Ivan (William Baldwyn) and Bernard with his student Lili (Anna Paquin).<br /><br />This little family and coming to age drama is a sensitive story, apparently based on the self-biography of the director and writer Noah Baumbach. The story is very well acted and develops a phase of separation of the couple Bernard and Joan and its effects in their sons Walt and Frank. The moment of the conclusion is pretentious and deceptive, with Walt in the American Museum of Natural History recalling a good – or maybe the best - moment of his life looking at a giant squid fighting a whale displayed in the museum. My vote is seven.<br /><br />Title (Brazil): "A Lula e a Baleia" ("The Squid and the Whale")