Movie Review Greenberg

Greenberg (2010) 

Directed by Noah Baumbach

Written by Noah Baumbach

Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans 

Release Date March 19th, 2010 

Published May 12th, 2010 

Dear Roger Greenberg

Unlike you I rarely write complaint letters but having spent time with you, courtesy of writer-director Noah Baumbach, I felt compelled to write to you. My complaint is that I feel I am far too like you and I aim to change that. I guess this isn't so much a complaint, maybe even more of a thank you. Wanting to not become like you may change the very course of my life.

Sincerely,

Sean Patrick Kernan

The movie Greenberg may have honestly changed my life. Heretofore a misanthrope with an honest distaste for most other people I am compelled by the example of Ben Stiller's performance in Greenberg that this is the path of a lonely, pathetic and desperate existence where even those you do connect with will be dealt the blow of your worldview eventually.

Roger Greenberg is 41 years old and staying at his millionaire brother's mansion for several weeks while his brother is on a family vacation, his aim is to actively do nothing. What nothing entails is unclear as Roger seems to hate everyone and everything but desperately calls old friends and acquaintances begging for some company. This would require him to do things and there you have his conundrum.

Among the things for Roger to do is spend time with his brother's assistant Florence (Greta Gerwig) who reveals herself to be one of the rare people who can tolerate his constant bad attitude. An aspiring musician, Florence speaks to Roger's own longings; he once was in a band that came up short of the big time because of him.

Music is not a big part of Roger and Florence's relationship. The dominant theme is Roger pushing and pulling and Florence finding his anger and mood swings to be a mask for a vulnerability that she finds irresistible. These two people would be meant for each other in any other movie but in the complex web of character conflict woven by writer-director Noah Baumbach, their personalities provide realistic roadblocks to happiness.

This is the finest work in Noah Baumbach's previously overrated career. Greenberg irons out the issues with his Margot at the Wedding in which all of the characters were mini-Greenberg's and thus intolerable. With no one to point out what jerks they all were, the characters sprayed venom in all directions until the movie could not sustain the momentum of their irksomeness.

In Greenberg only Roger is bitter, sad, hateful and desperate and it's easier to tolerate. Everyone else in the movie reveals Roger's character and forces him to confront himself. This allows the character to evolve and if not change, at least check the attitude to the point where other people can tolerate him.

Ben Stiller's performance in Greenberg is a stunner, especially considering his remarkably awful turns in not one but TWO Night at the Museum movies. One could fairly wonder if he could ever be taken seriously after repeated slap fights with a monkey but Greenberg shows there is still talent there. 

Greta Gerwig is wonderful as the often wilting but wily Florence and just as good is Rhys Ifans who plays Roger's best friend Ivan. Years ago Roger and Ivan were in a band together and naturally Roger blew the whole thing with his bad vibes. To his astonishing credit, especially for a Baumbach character, he doesn't hold it against him and what Ifans plays so well are the unspoken reasons why he doesn't hold it against him.

Greenberg is filled with all of the subtlety and wit that Noah Baumbach always thought he had but has never really demonstrated. The characters are flawed, intelligent and achingly normal creatures that are not defined by their wounded psyches, aside from Greenberg that is. It's almost anti-Baumbach in that way.

Most important for me is the performance of Ben Stiller who reveals portions of Roger that I'm sure many people like me recognized far too well in our own lives. Like him I am an angry, self sabotaging misanthrope who mistakes edgy self involvement for wit and loathing of humanity as insight. Yes, I do those things and after seeing the result in Greenberg I aim to be different. What more can one ask of a great work of art but to have it reveal something of them.

For that, for me, Greenberg is a revelation.