Greenberg (2010)
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Greenberg Movie Review
Greenberg is a 2010 comedy drama film directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Ben Stiller and Greta Gerwig. It’s of course a problematic movie in its protagonist, but it’s still quite solid.
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“Hurt people hurt people“
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After suffering a mental breakdown, Roger agrees to house-sit his brother’s home in Los Angeles. He meets Florence, his brother’s personal assistant and strikes an unlikely courtship with her. The movie is infamous for its central character. And yes, he is incredibly unlikable, insufferable even in some very frustrating sequences here and there.
However, the film deals with a person who is mentally ill, and it does a pretty good job of portraying what it must be like living as such an individual. Though at times overly sympathetic toward him, the picture still portrays how it must be difficult for others to be around such a man.
Speaking of the others, I loved Greta Gerwig here. She was wonderful as Florence, highly likable, very interesting and even compelling in a couple of scenes. The relationship between the two is well realized and realistic, though it still needed a bit more screen time to be honest.
Ben Stiller is terrific. This is one of his best roles and performances. He was perfectly cast and he delivered such a strong performance that might be his career-best. I also liked Rhys Ifans in another important, well written role.
So yes, Greenberg is very well painted in its characters, but it is not all that well written when it comes to its storytelling. Some of the pacing issues are apparent throughout, but still the storyline as a whole should have been richer and more thematically complex. This is all about the characters, and although they are greatly developed, I wished for more memorable plot points as well.
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Greenberg is solidly directed by Noah Baumbach. This clearly isn’t one of his best movies, but it’s another one of his fine outings with a particularly great knack at dialogue. The many conversations here between all characters are so well written and the humor is also solid at times, though I personally found the movie to be more of a drama than a comedy.
