Review of Greenberg (2010) by Takis T — 07 Nov 2010

When first hearing about this film I didn't really expect that much but people were saying it was pretty good and it's probably Ben Stillers best overall performace of his carrer. I even heard somebody say it was one of the best films of the year so I thought I had to see it.

Starting with Ben Stillers performace I have to say the people were right about this being his best performance of his carrer. I've seen many of his films and in most of them I only saw Ben Stiller and not the character he was playing, but in Greenberg he really did become thar character. I thought sometimes he could be really unlikeable and sometimes just an asshole but other than that I found myself rooting for him to find someone and do something with his life and just be happy for once. But he wasent the only good perormance in this film.

Besides Stiller I really the two other characters he was close with, them being his friend Ivan who was played by Rhys Ifans who gave us a lot of the comedy and had some great chemistry with Stiller, I really thought they were best friends but always had something to say each other but just coulden't ever say it. His character was also very likebale all the way throughout the film. There was also Florence who was played by Greta Gerwig who was right up there with Stiller with having the best performace in the film. She was smart, witty, funny, and sexy all at the same time. And you could tell she really did like Greenberg she just coulden't find herself to say it just like him. Their chemsitry was also great and was steady all the throughout the film.

The othyer really good thing I liked about this film was the screenplay which was written by the director Noah Baumbach. I thought the script was smart, funny, and at the same time full of drama as well. He mixed it up very well with making some of the jokes making you laugh and some of them making you feel sorry for Greenberg. The direction from Baumbach was solid as well and made the actors have some good chemistry and keeping it funny and serious at the same time. It didn't jump around at all really and you always knew what was going on. But I thought it took forever for Florence nad Greenberg to really say how they felt when they new it the whole time.

Some flaws I would have for this film is that the title character can sometimes be unlikebale and you know why a lot of people don't exactly like him or want to be around him. The other would be the ending(which i've heard form other people that they didn't like it either). I wanted Florence to listen to his message and see how she felt about it, not left with "ok this is you" and we have no idea what happens between them.

But overall I really liked this film, most of the time I had a smile on a face and sometimes I had a serious face on. I thought the comedy was very smart and well written. So i'll say if you like Ben Stiller and really see him "act" then you should watch this. 80%.