Review: Greenberg (2010) ****

Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans and Ben Stiller in Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg
Photo by Wilson Webb. ©2006 FOCUS FEATURES LLC. All Rights Reserved.

Meet Roger Greenberg, an easy five to ten years beyond the point where being too hip and principled and above it all to commit yourself to something (anything) is boyishly charming. A misanthrope clinging to a loose collection of faded ideals backed up by a knot of excuses and justifications for his current state of non-being, he’s returned to Los Angeles to mind his brother’s comfortable upper class house in the Hollywood Hills. After years spent in New York, he’s hardened but otherwise unchanged. The cynical protective armor that was once his sense of humor has withered into an unappealing husk which he drags around behind him from one disappointment to the next. Nursing old resentments, still hung up on past mistakes and keen to relive past triumphs, he reaches out to old friends only to find that life in LA did not stop moving forward in his absence. While the rest of the world has grown, Greenberg has merely congealed.

Enter Florence, the personal assistant to Greenberg’s brother. Tall, blond and kind of clunky, she’s completely guileless and open where Greenberg is defensive and closed off. She’s passive but sweet and has a sort of matter-of-fact handling of her own sexuality. Though not stupid, she’s uncritical and accepting. In almost every way, she’s Greenberg’s opposite. Though they have little in common beyond the fact they’re both aimless souls, he has her phone number and more importantly she has a car. He’s mostly a jerk to her (as he is to everyone), but she sees through his shell into the vulnerability underneath and it appeals to her. They’re an unlikely couple and the connection they form can’t quite be called a romance, but it’s still a connection and there’s hope that each can offer the other something they’re missing.

Ben Stiller has never been an actor afraid of looking like a jerk and that confidence suits him perfectly in the title role. Capturing both Greenberg’s personality and his physicality, Stiller seems shrunken as though coiled and ready for defense all the while issuing forth a steady stream of wry cynicism. He’s a man who is off his game, but doesn’t think anyone knows. Stiller somehow allows his character to be unlikable while also making him funny and at times vulnerable. Without the latter, you’d never believe Florence would have any interest in him.

As Florence, the wonderful Greta Gerwig (Hannah Takes the Stairs, Baghead) is the key to making the film work. She’s always been entertaining in this or that micro-budgeted indie, but this is the first time she’s been allowed to play a fully formed, emotionally resonant human being instead of an improvised sketch of a character. She’s goofy and she’s awkward, but she’s real and wholly, naturally adorable. She’s also the perfect tonic for Stiller’s acerbic characterization.

Another quiet star of the film is Los Angeles itself. Writer/director Noah Baumbach has switched coasts from his usual Northeastern milieu and the change in environment has freed him up a bit. Perhaps with the help of his wife, LA native Jennifer Jason Leigh (who co-wrote the story and stars as Greenberg’s old girlfriend), and assisted by the cinematography of Harris Savides, Baumbach captures a slice of Los Angeles that never seems to make it to the big screen. More than a string of hipster hotspots linked by crowded freeways, LA is a sun-baked maze of strip malls and traffic signals. It’s almost provincial, yet there is always the sound of traffic or a helicopter to remind you you’re surrounded by 8 million people. It’s an easy city to get lost in, both physically and spiritually, and Greenberg captures all of that without over-emphasizing it.

Baumbach has made a career out of films about unlikable people being assholes to one another. In the terrific The Squid and the Whale, you could at least sympathize with the children who suffer from the battle between two narcissistic parents, but he reached a dead end with the fractured family dynamics of Margot at the Wedding. Solid writing and strong performances couldn’t overcome the fact that the family in question was composed of grownups who had no reason to remain in one another’s lives and gave no reason for us to watch them get under one another’s skin. Their self-imposed plight was more exasperating than enlightening or entertaining. Greenberg however, is different. Though Stiller’s sour superiority would be comfortably at home in any of Baumbach’s other films, the conflict in this new film is almost entirely internal. Instead of a collection of hateful people who ought to be separated, here it’s one man wrestling with himself.

Though Baumbach is clearly rooting for his hero to grow and change, that’s not to say he’s lost his sharp edge. Greenberg is packed with moments that reflect the director’s ability to zero in on the uncomfortably real. There’s a scene between Jennifer Jason Leigh and Stiller that starts out as a friendly but awkward lunch between a former girlfriend and boyfriend. She’s got kids now and the two might as well be complete strangers for as much as they’ve grown apart, but Greenberg doesn’t see it. He only remembers the way it was and he can’t see beyond his regret for having dumped her way back when. Meanwhile, she barely remembers the circumstances of their splitting up and it’s never occurred to her that things could’ve been different “if only.” As Greenberg works up to asking her out officially, you can feel the embarrassing disappointment coming. It’s an incisive moment that stings a little bit if you’ve ever harbored regret over a lost love only to find out they haven’t done the same.

Ultimately, the film is difficult to categorize. It’s funny, but it’s not a comedy. It’s about two people forming a connection, but it’s not a romance. It follows a narrative arc, but it’s really more of a character study. Basically, it’s the kind of movie that gives studio marketing departments fits, yet that’s part of what makes it great. In many ways it’s a more mainstream film than Baumbach’s previous efforts, but Greenberg is also a refreshing leap forward. What’s more, it’s a career high point for Stiller and proof that Gerwig is more than ready to graduate to the big time.

Greenberg opens in limited release on March 19, 2010.

Greenberg. USA 2010. Written and directed by Noah Baumbach from a screen story by Noah Baumbach and Jennifer Jason Leigh. Cinematography by Harris Savides. Music score composed by James Murphy. Edited by Tim Streeto. Starring Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Brie Larson and Chris Messina. 1 hour 40 minutes. MPAA rated R for some strong sexuality, drug use, and language. 4 stars (out of 5).

Filed under: Review
Tags: Ben Stiller, Brie Larson, Chris Messina, Greenberg, Greta Gerwig, Harris Savides, James Murphy, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Noah Baumbach, Rhys Ifans, Tim Streeto