Director: Noah Baumbach
Starring: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans
Score: 7 / 10
This review by Robert Nijman. Be sure to check out our Greenberg competition.
That comedy talent can be effective in drama as well, needs no explanation. Jim Carrey showcased his theatre skills in ‘The Truman Show’ and ‘Eternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind’, Adam Sandler did it in ‘Punch Drunk Love’, and funnyman Robin Williams even won an Oscar in ‘Good Will Hunting’. With the surprisingly touching indie ‘Greenberg’, it’s Stiller’s turn, settling down a bit with a number of smaller projects after big box office success ‘Tropic Thunder’.
Ben Stiller is Roger Greenberg, a somewhat withdrawn forty-something who fifteen years ago rejected a record deal, left his friends, family and a possibly successful career in the Los Angeles music industry behind and became a carpenter in New York. Today, Roger is not at all well. He has just been released from a psychiatric hospital, where he had been a patient for several weeks for, among others things, obsessive compulsive behaviour. With his brother and family away om holiday for some weeks to come, he decides to take care of his younger sibling’s house, and dog. A responsibility he shares with 25-year-old Florence (Greta Gerwig), his brother’s assistant, with whom he almost immediately plunges into a relationship that lies somewhere between friendship and, I guess, what you can call going steady.
The short story that unfolds could very well have been written by Todd Solondz, or Charlie Kaufman – minus his characteristic surrealism – and might have ended up on some spotlighted stage off Broadway rather than on the big screen. The eccentric Roger, who mostly fills his days writing letters of complaint to service companies that have in one way or another done him wrong (his seat on the plane was below expectations, and the carpet in the animal taxi annoyingly sub-par) and also by building a doghouse in his brother’s backyard, still finds the time to reaffirm his old LA ties. Or, in some cases, cut these ties for good since his departure didn’t bode well for everyone, as the missed record deal left some of Roger’s friends looking for other, less favoured means of income. Most notably Ivan (Rhys Ifans), who now lamentably works in a computer store. The heart of the story however, remains Roger’s quasi-relationship with Florence, who just might be his ticket towards a somewhat mature lifestyle more suitable for a man his age. Their relationship has fast-paced ups and downs due to Roger’s irratic behaviour and questionable mannerisms, but a common concern for ill-stricken sheepdog Mahler (a furry MacGuffin if I ever saw one) effectively keeps the oddly happy couple together.
‘Greenberg’ offers humour mostly in its sharp, observant criticism and sarcasm, and in Stiller’s awkward title character that sees him tap both his well-known comic timing as well as an added dimension of near-dramatic quirkiness, as Roger invariably follows his pensive tendencies with sudden emotional outbursts that both entertain and slightly displease, yet somehow instill sympathy for the mentally (not too severely) troubled protagonist. Meanwhile, the underlying drama is never forced upon the audience, thereby maintaining a pleasant aloofness without giving you the impression some aspects should have been explained a little better – like offering more explicit reasons behind Roger’s hospital admittance. Stiller’s performance thereby approaches that of Woody Allen’s typical neurotic einzelganger, while Gerwig is reminiscent of a Zooey Deschanel, or even Audrey Hepburn’s Holly Golighty – which admittedly is a bit of a stretch, but there are obvious similarities nonetheless. The result is a successful drama that’s really just a little romcom sans the usual irritations, lifted above average by the interesting characters and the small and pleasant finds in a script full of snappy-if-a-little-odd humour that makes ‘Greenberg’ a play well worth seeing.
