June 13, 2010
Ben Stiller returns to our screens in a pseudo-serious role as an angst-ridden 40-year old trying to crawl back to life after a stint in what his sister-in-law refers to as a mental hospital, by "doing nothing" - a task at which he undeniably succeeds.
As the eponymous Greenberg, Stiller manages to elicit from the viewer an irrepressible urge to smack several of the main characters about the head with a large piece of two-by-four; a reaction truly indicative of the subtly clever script as well as some impressive performances from the actors. Rhys Ifans puts in an excellent performance as the long-suffering comrade who deals remarkably well with Greenberg's personal brand of crazy neurosis. In addition, Greta Gerwig plays the soulful Florence – the assistant to Greenberg’s brother who seems initially to accept his advances as simply an extension to the requirements of her job. Her portrayal of an ingenuous twenty-something trying to find her own purpose is as affecting as Stiller’s is, at times, infuriating.
The intense antipathy incited by Greenberg serves only to make his one genuinely honest moment, during an argument with his closest friend whilst he is heavily intoxicated three quarters of the way through the film, that much more poignant. Somehow you find yourself desperately hoping that he’ll manage to find a way through his existential angst in a more productive manner than that with which he proceeds though the majority of the film – by obsessively drafting pedantic letters of complaint to whatever organisation might be justifiably blamed for some of the very many ways in which life manages to disappoint him. Yet the film ends on a bizarrely optimistic note that allows us to feel there might be some hope left for both the empathically-stunted Greenberg and the hopelessly smitten Florence; and thus that perhaps even the most hapless of us have a chance of finding happiness.
As the eponymous Greenberg, Stiller manages to elicit from the viewer an irrepressible urge to smack several of the main characters about the head with a large piece of two-by-four; a reaction truly indicative of the subtly clever script as well as some impressive performances from the actors. Rhys Ifans puts in an excellent performance as the long-suffering comrade who deals remarkably well with Greenberg's personal brand of crazy neurosis. In addition, Greta Gerwig plays the soulful Florence – the assistant to Greenberg’s brother who seems initially to accept his advances as simply an extension to the requirements of her job. Her portrayal of an ingenuous twenty-something trying to find her own purpose is as affecting as Stiller’s is, at times, infuriating.
The intense antipathy incited by Greenberg serves only to make his one genuinely honest moment, during an argument with his closest friend whilst he is heavily intoxicated three quarters of the way through the film, that much more poignant. Somehow you find yourself desperately hoping that he’ll manage to find a way through his existential angst in a more productive manner than that with which he proceeds though the majority of the film – by obsessively drafting pedantic letters of complaint to whatever organisation might be justifiably blamed for some of the very many ways in which life manages to disappoint him. Yet the film ends on a bizarrely optimistic note that allows us to feel there might be some hope left for both the empathically-stunted Greenberg and the hopelessly smitten Florence; and thus that perhaps even the most hapless of us have a chance of finding happiness.