He's a self-absorbed crank.
"Greenberg." As in Roger Greenberg. Ben Stiller has created a character that no
one could possibly love, and yet here we are in a darkened theater, rooting for
him to change so we can do just that. This is a guy who walks through life
without cracking a smile, whose head is the war room for a flood of battling
rages, who is nasty to anyone who crosses his path. He's a self-absorbed crank.
We first meet
Roger as he arrives from New York to house sit his brother's upscale family lair
in Los Angeles while they vacation in Vietnam. Vietnam? That, along with the
house, tells us that the brother was at least an achiever. Roger is a failed
garage band man whose mind dwells on the smallest details without ever noticing
the bigger questions like "What do I want my life to be?" Credit a fine
performance by Rhys Ifans as Ivan, former band buddy who has managed to grow up
in the years since the breakup of the group.
Angry at a
seat that refuses to recline, Roger writes an angry letter to American Airlines;
too much traffic noise in New York? Mayor Bloomberg hears from him. All of daily
life is a series of imagined stumbling blocks for Roger, and he would rather
stumble than figure things out. His life is an ordeal caused by nothing.
In the very
first scene we meet Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig), household assistant and savior
of the Greenberg brother's family. As Florence races through traffic on last
minute pre-departure errands, she is the poster girl for accomplishing detail
with dispatch. Within moments, we realize that actress Greta Gerwig is not only
authentic, but comfortable. Is she even acting? Haven't you known dozens of
people whose sentences drift off into space because they begin with a question
they simply can't answer? Gerwig's Florence has both heart and ability without
direction for either. As they explore each other warily, Roger pounces
repeatedly on Florence's openness and vulnerability with the cruelty born of his
confusion. She is kind; Roger is not.
Their mutual
assignment for now is Mahler, the big old lazy dog who racks up more than $3000
in vet bills while his masters are away. Florence cares for Mahler from love,
Roger from duty. But Mahler is the one being who draws Roger out of himself.
Otherwise, Roger complains and whines about everyone and every thing.
At one point,
Florence says of Roger, "You can tell a lot of normal stuff is hard for him."
You bet. Watching Roger Greenberg is a grueling experience precisely because the
normal stuff of life is his preoccupation. The bigger stuff is something he
simply hasn't addressed. Both he and she are stuck without purpose or dreams. If
anything saves us from the daunting challenge of trying to understand Roger
Greenberg, it is watching Greta Gerwig create Florence. She is writer/director
Noah Baumbach's gift to the audience.
Copyright (c) Illusion