Movie Review - Greenberg

Greenberg (2010)

Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, and Rhys Ifans

Directed by Noah Baumbach

I'm not really a fan of movies where some narcissistic person tries to find themselves, hurting all their friends in the process, but becoming a better person by the end, and, thusly, is forgiven by said friends who turned him away.  

That's the story in a nutshell of Greenberg.  

Ben Stiller is the title character, Roger Greenberg.  Just released from a mental hospital, Roger is staying at his vacationing brother's house in California.  While there, Roger falls for his brother's assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig), and they begin a tumultuous relationship in which Roger continually berates her but she keeps coming back to him because "he's got issues...he was in a mental hospital...it's not his fault."  Had the character of Florence been some floozy or down-on-her-luck gal, I could understand why she'd go back to him.  However, as played by the plain jane but very attractive Greta Gerwig, Florence is a woman who seems fairly sure of herself.  Granted, she recognizes that she has faults, but there's no reason why this girl would keep going back to the jerk that is Roger Greenberg.

Since this is a hip, indie movie, drugs come into play (because all those hipsters like to snort their coke and smoke their weed while downing a variety of pills) and instead of causing Roger to lose it even more, they help him realize what he's been missing in Florence.  Ugh.  The third act of this film tries to set up a magical awakening for Roger, but one never gets an idea that he has changed one bit.

The one positive thing to take away from Greenberg is that Greta Gerwig is actually quite good.  There was a genuineness about her that didn't seem forced or fake.  I wish the same could be said for Stiller who, in certain scenes, you could tell he was trying his hardest not to portray the spastic angry characters he's played before.

The RyMickey Rating: C-