Greenberg (*½)
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans, Greta Gerwig, Chris Messina,
Susan Taylor, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brie Larson, Juno Temple, Susan Traylor
Seen: September 25th 2010
*½ Out of ****
When Phillip (Messina) and Carol (Traylor) Greenberg go on holiday
in Vietnam, Phillip’s brother Roger (Stiller) comes to live in their home while
they’re gone. Being a carpenter he offers to build them a dog house during this
time, which, during the movie, slowly reaches completion. Roger is a recluse of
sorts, as he is dealing with just recovering from a nervous breakdown and is
thus trying to, at present, really do nothing. When the neighbours come over to
use the Greenbergs’ pool, he ducks back into the house without responding when
they greet him. The Greenberg family’s personal assistant, Florence Marr
(Gerwig), makes herself available to help Roger should he need anything.
Florence is 15 years younger than Roger, but despite this age-gap
they somehow gravitate towards each other and it takes almost no time for Roger
to call her for a drink, and they end up half sharing a Corona light before awkwardly
making out in Florence’s apartment. It doesn’t take long for the socially inept
Roger to act out on some ridiculous detail, and he storms out the door without further
explanation. But there seems to always be some reason for either of them to
eventually call the other, be it Phillip’s sick dog or Roger’s need to be
somewhere (he doesn’t drive, and thus needs a lift practically anywhere), and
in these moments they get closer to each other with every meeting.
During their strange quasi-romance, Roger meets up with some old
friends, including Ivan (Ifans), a member of the band Roger purposely but
actually unwittingly caused to break up 15 years ago (it makes sense in the
movie); and Beth (Jason Leigh), Roger’s old girlfriend, who is divorced but
rejects Roger when he makes a pass at her. Roger continues being a self-made
social outcast for most of the movie, not wanting to attend parties and being
extremely odd when he does attend. Roger seems most at home around people when
his 20-something niece arrives and throws a party where Roger is offered a
variety of drugs – which he accepts while deriding the younger crowd for being
so different because of the changing times.
I had trouble caring for the characters at all, since it seems
like what they go through happens to them because of their narcissism and
almost nothing else. Roger is the worst kind of person, and his redemption does
not ring completely true or of the lasting kind. The movie had one sequence
that I found very good, standing head and shoulders above the rest of this
overlong uncomfortable drivel, the party scene where Roger takes on - and in
doing this - impresses some teenagers with his way of thinking, followed by a
heated exchange between Roger and Ivan showing just how self-centred Roger is. It
is just nowhere near enough to redeem the rest of this clumsy movie – I found
next to nothing enjoyable, or lacking enjoyment, nothing entertaining in this
movie.
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