Movie Review: Greenberg

Monday, January 3, 2011
Synopsis: Roger Greenberg, single, fortyish and at a crossroads in his life, finds himself in Los Angeles, house-sitting for six weeks for his more successful/married-with-children brother. In search of a place to restart his life, Greenberg tries to reconnect with old friends including his former bandmate Ivan. But old friends aren't necessarily still best friends, and Greenberg soon finds himself spending more and more time with his brother's personal assistant Florence, an aspiring singer and also something of a lost soul. Despite his best attempts not to be drawn in, Greenberg and Florence manage to forge a connection, and Greenberg realizes he may at last have found a reason to be happy.
Starring: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Chris Messina
Directed by: Noah Baumbach
U.S. Rating: R

Ben Stiller crosses the boundaries of what he's been doing for a long time... comedy films. Greenberg is nothing about comedy. Obviously, it has some funny moments, but not enough to make it a comedy film. Nevertheless, it is actually a good film with a Stiller's outstanding performance.

Phillip and Carol live in Los Angeles and they're taking a long vacation in Vietnam. Phillip counts on Florence, an extremely helpful and efficient personla assistant to take care of the errands while they're gone, but they have decided to bring Phillip's brother to take care of the house and their dog. Roger is a neurotic, depressed shaggy-haired forty-something who's been recently released from a hospital. He's recently gone through a psychiatric breakdown and has just decided to spend some time doing absolutely "nothing". Roger spent his last 15 years living in New York, so he's out of practice and lost some skills, for example, driving a car.

While he's at Phillip's home, Roger meets Florence, Phillip's personal assistant. Florence has an efficient professional life, but her love life is another story. Roger likes Florence but doesn't want to commit on a relationship, since that's against his plans, remember? Spend some time doing nothing! During those weeks, he tries to contact his old friends, but most of them have changed, hold bad feelings and deceptive memories towards Roger or just find him extremely boring. Roger tries to date his old girlfriend again, a divorced woman with two kids, but she immediately takes a step back making things worse for Roger, who has to fight with the old feelings for his ex-girlfriend and the new attraction he feels for Florence. The only big problem is that Roger's attitude and lack of commitment, goals and vision in life makes him to be a dork, hurting people around him, especially, those ones who have feelings for him.

The film is all about the battle of feelings and dilemmas Roger has to face during those 6 weeks in LA.

Ben Stiller shows through this film that he's not just a great comedy actor, but he's also reveals an amazing sensitive and artistically-inclined side to his acting talent.

I would rate this movie with a 3/5


Have you watched the film? What did you like or dislike from this movie? What would you rate this movie? Share with us your thoughts!

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