Greenberg – Review

As the story picks up in Greenberg we’re already presented with Roger Greenberg’s (Ben Stiller) situation. He’s stuck and it seems like he is having issues with it. That’s how these things are, you know, we never really know when or how it starts, this bitterness of aging, it just happens. I’d go one step further, and say life is wasted on people, exclaims Greenberg, and at his age of 40, you can’t blame him. Or maybe, we have yet reached that awareness? Either way, it’s crippling, and as presented in Noah Baumbach’s sixth feature, that crippling feels like a dead spot. There’s like to like and maybe even not like about Greenberg, but that’s the fascinating part of the film. When do we become Greenberg? Would we be self-aware to avoid being perpetually in a rut?

Greenberg is far from perfect, and not as funny as the trailer suggested, but it is sincere. Sincerity is a rare bird in films now days, and the film really feels alive when it focuses on the two main character separately rather than together. Greenberg is immediately unlikable. He’s like that one guest at a party, everyone’s asking why was he inivited? Florence (Greta Gerwig), the film’s other main focus, is equally the opposite of Greenberg. She’s immediately likable and sweet. Yet, they both are stuck. Greenberg is easier to figure out. He’s bitter and disgusted. Perhaps the live he wanted, he (obviously) never got, and that irritates him to no end. It’s this consumption of his past, that doesn’t allow him to move on. With Florence, it’s way more difficult to figure her out. Clearly, she’s doing things to make ends meet, yet has an odd time connecting with people. She’s not anti-social, but clearly makes excuses to avoid commitment. Hmm.

Co-written by Baumbach’s wife, Jennifer Jason Leigh, the film never gels with their romance, but as parts they are far more interesting than as a whole. The sly look at suffering intellectuals isn’t new territory for Baumbach, but it’s one he’s about done telling, in my opinion. Greenberg works since maybe it can hit close to home. For some, it won’t. In a scene where Greenberg is hanging at a party with a ton of early college kids, his analytical eye seems on. I hope I die before I see any of you in a job interview. Harsh, but precise. Baumbach’s eye turns to these kids, our youth, and at one hand points out their generation as scary as it is for a young person to think about getting old, yet is also appreciative of their youth. Greenberg balances some keen looks at times in our lives we aren’t self-aware too.

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