UnlikeableBy John DeSando, WCBE's "It's Movie Time," "Cinema Classics," and "On the Marquee"
Because of Ben Stiller's titular character in Noah Baumbach's Greenberg, I have to reassess how important identifying with or sympathizing with the hero is in my criticism. Simply put, Roger Greenberg is not a likeable chap: For instance, he's sour about almost everything, to the extent that he has multiple complaint letters going to Starbucks, American Airlines, and like establishments.
Having been released recently from treatment for depression, Greenberg is doing nothing but visiting his brother's elegant home in Los Angeles while his brother is conducting business in Vietnam. Florence (Greta Gerwig), his brother's assistant, pretty and fifteen-years younger, presents Roger with the challenge of ignoring his attraction to her and thus feeding his misanthropy, or embracing her and perhaps a better view of humanity. You guessed it: He fights the attraction.
I did not find anything to like about Roger (except his brutal honesty), and not even at his most eloquent during a party where coke, of the granular kind, loosens his tongue to give a cultural tongue-lashing to partying 20 somethings around him.
At this defining point in the film, where directors usually have characters give some philosophical import to the film, the young people have no comeback, thus no dialogue about the difference in generations or whatever Baumbach wants thematically. It's just a party, and Greenberg is the life of it for a moment as the coke kicks in and his neuroses take center stage.
More successful, however, is his tentative relationship with his old band mate, Ivan (Rhys Ifans), whose marital difficulties deflect him from hitting Greenberg head on about his losing a record contract for their band. Ivan's care for Greenberg, or should I say patience, is a touching part of a film where most characters would like to avoid him.
Greenberg is another neurotic for Baumbach's canon and another for Stiller's career.
They both can be legitimately neurotic about this film.
John DeSando teaches film at Franklin University and co-hosts WCBE 90.5's It's Movie Time, Cinema Classics, and On the Marquee, which can be heard streaming at http://publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/ppr/index.shtml and on demand at http://www.publicbroadcasting.net/wcbe/arts.artsmain Contact him at JDeSando@Columbus.RR.com