The familiar in writer/director Noah Baumbach's sweetly neurotic broken family comedy "Greenberg" is Ben Stiller as titular character Roger Greenberg. As the forty-something New Yorker struggling to jump- start his life while visiting Los Angeles, Stiller unloads the ear-to- ear smirks, aggravated looks and exasperated dialogue that have become his comic trademarks. The go-to man for mediocre Hollywood comedies like the "Night at the Museum" movies, Stiller finds a role tailor-made for him in "Greenberg" and a filmmaker in-sync with his personality ticks. Partnering with Baumbach results in Stiller's best performance in years. The Crackerjack box surprise in "Greenberg" and the best performance in the movie is indie film actress Greta Gerwig.
As Florence, the personal assistant to Greenberg's affluent brother and an aspiring singer who's adrift just like Greenberg, Gerwig complements Stiller's sharp edges with warmth, heartache and a desire to move on with her life.
Without a steady job or income, Greenberg jumps at the chance to come to Los Angeles and housesit for his successful brother in Los Angeles. It's also a chance to reconnect with old friends and band mates from his long-ago indie rock group, especially Ivan (Rhys Ifans). Helping Greenberg adjust to L.A. living (the lifelong New Yorker doesn't have a drivers' license) is Florence (Gerwig), his brother's personal assistant and like Greenberg, somewhat lost in life.
Rhys Ifans offers solid comic support as Greenberg's shaggy friend Ivan, who like Greenberg and Florence, also looks to re-build his life. In one of the film's funniest scenes, a lunch between Greenberg and Ivan at the landmark Hollywood restaurant Musso & Frank turns silly when Florence arrives as a last-minute date. Jennifer Jason Leigh (veteran actress and Baumbach's wife) makes the most of her brief scene as Greenberg's former girlfriend smart enough not to date him a second time.
Stiller is consistently edgy as Greenberg; clearly giving Baumbach what he wants. What saves the film from becoming too uncomfortable is a sense of sadness that runs beneath Greenberg's anger management issues, neurotic habit of writing letters of complaint to everyone and me-first personality. Late in the movie, Greenberg parties with his twenty-something niece and her college friends and his struggle to fit in is both poignant and painful to watch.
Gerwig, who claims a cultish following of fans thanks to her work in small indie films like "Baghead" and "Hannah Takes The Stairs", has her largest role to date in "Greenberg" and she's up to the task.
Florence is an innocent with a baby face; someone who still gets carded at bars. Gerwig emphasizes Florence's vulnerable side but shows sparks of strength when the situations demand it most.
Baumbach is becoming known for family dysfunction comedies after the Brooklyn-set "The Squid and the Whale" (still his best film) and the battling sisters comedy "Margot at the Wedding". The something new in "Greenberg" is romance, a tentative, delicate somewhat co-dependent love affair between two people in desperate need of someone to love.
Baumbach reaches, if ever so cautiously, in "Greenberg" (after showing his whimsical side as the co-writer of "Fantastic Mr. Fox") and the payoff is welcome laughs as well as the recognition of Greenberg as someone you know or yourself.
Distributor: Focus Features
Cast: Ben Stiller, Greta Gerwig, Rhys Ifans and Jennifer Jason Leigh , Juno Temple and Brie Larson
Director: Noah Baumbach
Writer: Noah Baumbach
Rating: R
Running time: 107 min
Release Date: March. 19, 2010
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