Greenberg

Colleen's Thoughts:
I tried to go into Noah Baumbach’s movie Greenberg with an open mind. However, I was mildly skeptical considering I listened to Terry Gross’s show, Fresh Air, with Ben Stiller and she talked to him more about Tropic Thunder than the movie he was actually promoting, Greenberg. Unfortunately almost all the great things about Margot at the Wedding (Baumbach’s last film)Greenberg lacks. True, both movies are about privileged over educated whiney snobs. However, Margot at the Wedding (mostly to the credit of the characters played by Jennifer Jason Leigh and Jack Black) never seems to lose sight of this. Margot (brilliantly played by Nicole Kidman) is a character we dislike but also see as a real and interesting person. Roger Greenberg (played competently by Ben Stiller) is certainly not interesting and here lies the major flaw of the screenplay in my opinion. Baumbach is already asking a lot of the viewer (especially this viewer) by making a movie with very little plot, all about a depressed rich asshole. Although his medical history suggests Greenberg is “deep” we do not see any evidence of this in the film. Instead Greenberg is just plain grumpy and no fun to watch. (The performance by Greta Gerwig is even less interesting if you can fathom it). I think Baumbach would have been better off channeling this privileged grumpiness into a modern remake of A Christmas Carol, though I doubt at this point he can pull off much of anything.