Alicia I love this movie so much

PodBill Just what I expected

Afouotos Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

Erica Derrick By the time the dramatic fireworks start popping off, each one feels earned.

krocheav After wondering why I had not heard much about this movie - approached it with caution - now I understand why it failed big time. The best way to summarise might be to see it for what it is - Neurotic Minimalism. What might have been a good study of attempting to re-engage with yourself gets totally lost in the movie makers obscene & disconnected self indulgences. This style of pseudo sociology appeals to the in-crowd & those who think of themselves as 'insightful' - while actually being estranged from any worthy reality. Christopher Tookey (Daily Mail) sums it up rather accurately: "This is the kind of low-budget movie that attracts respectful reviews, but tiny audiences. That's because there's virtually no story or character development",etc. Writer Jennifer Jason Leigh and director (co writer) Noah Baumbach both end up tending to glorify grotty people who display no understanding of how to engage in healthy relationships. It's the sort of movie that won't benefit anyone attempting to improve their lives so, maybe best stay away.

SnoopyStyle Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig) is the Greenberg family nanny in L.A. The family goes on a trip while the brother Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) drops by to housesit. She's young trying to find her way. He's a New Yorker misanthrope just out of an insane asylum. He doesn't drive and writes complaint letters. His friend Ivan Schrank (Rhys Ifans) pushes him to go to Eric Beller (Mark Duplass)'s barbecue where he runs into ex-girlfriend Beth (Jennifer Jason Leigh) with her kids. Roger, Eric and Ivan were once in a band but Roger refused to sign a recording deal. Florence and Roger have an on-and-off relationship.Ben Stiller is going too dark. It's a matter of slight miscalibration. This could be a great indie rom-com but I can't find any likability to Roger. His dialog could have some sharp sarcastic jokes to take off the edge. I need to laugh with him but his dark depressed nature keeps getting into the way. Getting angry over his birthday is probably the only laughable moment although saying Florence's emotional story is pointless gets a small chuckle. His anger needs to have more comedy as an outlet and to balance his dark side. It has some good moments but it could have been better.

Xianghong If you're sick of the standard Hollywood blockbusters, Greenberg offers a movie experience totally different from anything else we've seen this year. The plot is simple enough: Ben Stiller plays the titular character, Roger Greenberg, who is a middle-aged man recovering from a recent nervous breakdown by staying in his brother's place while he and his family are out vacationing. Greenberg tries to do nothing initially but decides to date his brother's personal assistant, Florence (indie actor Greta Gerwig), an awkward fresh graduate at a loss for direction in life, after he is forced to ask her for help in taking care of the family dog. The two lost souls struggle to rediscover themselves through reaching out to each other. Sounds familiar, right?Well, there's a twist. Classifying this movie as a romantic comedy would be disingenuous; akin to calling Night at The Museum a historical documentary - the romance was non-existent and the comedy depressing. As the film progressed, we started squirming in our seats and cringing at Ben Stiller's misanthropic endeavours to offend as many people who care about him as possible. This includes his (possibly only) friend, Ivan (played with nuance by Rhys Ifans) and Florence. Especially Florence. Indeed, calling Stiller the protagonist would be wrong - he should more appropriately be labelled the antagonist for the way he abuses poor Florence with remarkable predictability. In fact, the romance between Greenberg and Florence felt so unlikely and unfulfilling that it constantly felt forced even as the characters have awkward sex on screen.We understand the intention of director and script writer Noah Baumbach to portray an intense realism that strips away all pretenses in film, offering an up close and personal examination of the human psyche and its various neuroses, but the movie quickly become stale once that is established. The director could have been forgiven if the movie had been marketed as new-age and brimming with cynicism and raw, negative emotions, which is what it really is. The only saving grace is fresh-faced Greta Gerwig as the hugely likable Florence, her innocent free spirit a dark contrast to Greenberg's obnoxious and inexplicable tantrums.We found it hard at times to believe that this is the same Ben Stiller that starred in the hilarious outrageous Tropic Thunder and various other campy comedies over the past few years. That isn't to say that Stiller's performance was bad; in fact, he was so adept at playing the narcissistic neurotic that it's scary. It is to the credit of the three leads that the movie does not descend into full- fledged self-indulgence, but even their earnest acting cannot salvage the terrible directing. The humour was very dark and the pacing was bad, with no climax and an abrupt ending that saw the audience breathe a collective sigh of relief for finally being let off the hook - those that were not asleep, that is.

secondtake Greenberg (2010)I've come to like Ben Stiller a lot, but here the movie just struggles and falls very flat. That's the long and short of it.Except that is for Greta Gerwig. I've also come to really like her, and she makes the movie. She lifts it out of some kind of needlessness—the plot fizzles, Stiller plays out his contrived role without much conviction, but Gerwig make subtle and warm and interesting every scene she's in.So, along those lines, I highly highly recommend "Frances Ha," which makes the most of Gerwig (and which is a good, offbeat, indie film in every way). Here, in a Hollywood mainstream effort, there seems to be a formula comedy that just went wrong on page three. These kinds of films depend on a conflict of two main characters who, of course, should really be in love, based on the screwball formula of the 1930s. That takes a lot of fierce energy and a terrific script. We get neither here. As they tone things down to be somewhat believable (and even serious underneath) they lose the humor. And the plot, and dialog, don't hold up on their own.Sad. I feel bad for Gerwig most of all…a breakthrough moment that just ended up breaking. Oddly, the writing is partly by Jennifer Jason Leigh, and I wonder if this was a script that made it to the screen based on her name. Sounded good as a pitch, no doubt, but then? Don't do it.