jeff daniel and laura linney play husband and wife bernard and linda berkman . they live in park slope in brooklyn . both be phds in their forty . bernie have have a couple of novel publish and teach at a local college . his wife apparently stay home with their two boy . the dilemma of the two boy and walt and roughly 15 and and frank and 11 and be that their folk be break up and they aren not make it easy on their two kid . in fact and theyre make it very hard . there will be two home and and each kid will switch to the other parent house each day . it be never discuss but that mean the two boy never get to live together . the screenplay never even present this a a problem for the two boy . bernie immediately strike the audience a totally selfish and self serving and and his old son walt be his totally naive acolyte . when bernie say kafka metamorphosis be the ultimate book and walt peddle the same stuff to a potential girlfriend . his high school counselor detect instantly that he have not read the book or any of the others he claim knowledge of . but bernie develops self serve alibi for walt and like he do for himself and which be probably why bernie career a a novelist end in his twenty . the two parent be mostly unaware their kid be fall apart emotionally . frank be still a kid but he have begin masturbate in elementary school and wipe the residue on select girl locker . his brother have present a song to an audience at a high school talent contest a his own and when it be really the work of a famous member of a rock group . walt be have trouble at dad too . bernie have mostly resist the potential groupie student in the literature course he teach . but then he find out about the affair linda have be have with men in the neighborhood and even the kid lame tennis teacher ivan and play by william baldwin . bernie invite one of the more forward groupie at the college to live temporarily at the house . walt have a high school girl roughly his own age he be work on and but his father student be start to rouse him too . meanwhile and frank and though only 11 and have begin to drink beer and whiskey and and both kid swear and use foul language in front of both their parent . the key thing here be the two boy be lose it more each day and all bernie can do be try and poison walt against linda . linda too be unaware of the disintegration of her two boy . she get a career to run . it all come to a head when walt confess to the school counselor that he use to like his mother some when they watch robin hood together on television and and when she reassure him after he saw the picture of an enormous whale swallow the squid at the museum of natural history . he like her before his brother frank be bear . a light bulb go off in the head of the audience but the school counselor still look a little clueless . bernie be now so out of it with loss and he come to linda house and ask if she would consider have him back . linda laugh at this but the kid and both of them present and begin to wise up to the mendacity of their father and the new emerge confidence of their mom . while bernie career be in limbo and linda publishes a novel bernie warn she would never be able to complete and and get a short story publish in the new yorker . bernie behavior be transparent to the audience throughout the movie . he be a total user and but frank have side with his mother and walt with his dad . i be laugh at bernie and linda and mostly bernie and though linda have many moment too . the two parent be let their kid regularly insult them and but when 15 year old walt call his mom a bitch and even linda be alarm and complains . this be when the two kid start to realize their parent particularly bernie and have clay foot . walt stop listen to his father and though bernie have collapse in the street from something and have have to be take to a hospital by ambulance . when the kid realize bernie have be use them and the recovery be underway . now that they know it isn not they who be screw up and the two boy can begin to recover . the film be write and direct by noah baumbach and whose parent himself and his brother be the subject of this true story . jeff daniel give his best performance ever and laura linney be fearless a bernie distraught wife . the two young actor who play the son come close to break the heart of the audience toward the end . the film be not a tragedy and it a tragicomedy .