Review of Greenberg (2010) by Kate H — 31 Jan 2011

Alright I get that this film is not supposed to be fun. I also understand that Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is supposed to be a bastard. I've seen movies with unlikable protagonists and enjoyed them. Hell, I watched "House" for nearly four years. Ben Stiller does well with being a jerk. That being said you can't base an entire movie on a performance - at least not for me.

This film seems to have no point. You have Greenberg, fresh from a breakdown, trying to get his life on track and you spend the whole movie watching him trying to make the first major decision of his life. In this case that decision is to date Florence (Greta Gerwig). I don't get the hype over her performance. I mean it's not awful but it's okay, not brilliant. Another reviewer called her the hipster Alicia Silverstone and I think I might have to agree with that.

This movie has no real point. By the time he gets around to asking her he is still an asshole, which is not the issue with me. You just sit through a lot of crap that isn't even good storytelling or anything. I can't help but compare this to Garden State, one of my all time favourite movies, it's a similar plotline and it does its job SO much better than Greenberg manages to. Same basic character and same basic ending but it seems so much more cathartic or whatever. Not that movies should be that way but it should at least tell a good story or, at baseline, be entertaining. This movie was neither.