Review of Greenberg (2010) by Greg L — 15 Sep 2010
Noah Baumbach has a definite gift for creating bleakly funny character portraits of dysfunctional, self-centered individuals, and Stiller, as he did in "Your Friends And Neighbors", ventures ably into slightly darker comic territory than he ordinarily does.
Indie actress Greta Gerwig is also good as the confused young woman Stiller's character tries to romance, as is Rhys Ifans playing against type as a father facing the twin fearful prospects of divorce and middle age.
The problem is, as well as the characters are written and as good as the performances are, the relationships between them feel undercooked. Unlike in "The Squid And The Whale", Baumbach's previous effort, the central romance doesn't ring true, and neither does the friendship between Stiller and Ifans.
The result is a movie that hums along when the characters are soliloquizing but jolts unevenly when they're speaking to each other, and in a movie about trying to build healthy interpersonal relationships and salvage damaged ones, that creates a problem.
This review of Greenberg (2010) was written by Greg L on 15 Sep 2010.
Greenberg has generally received mixed reviews.
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