Greenberg (2010)

Director: Noah Baumbach

Producers:Jennifer Jason Leigh, Scott Rudin

Writer: Noah Baumbach; Jennifer Jason Leigh

Actors: Ben Stiller; Greta Gerwig; Rhys Ifans; Jennifer Jason Leigh

Music: James Murphy

Cinematography: Harris Savides

Rated: R (strong sexuality, drug use and language)

Running time: 107 mins.

East meets West.

       The United States is a primarily two-coast country: the East Coast and the West Coast. The Gulf Coast doesn’t count since it’s really just an extension of the East Coast--- and Alaska’s north shore on the Arctic Ocean--- well, that’s a later addition to our geography and hasn’t developed a personality and attitude of its own yet. East coasters face the Atlantic and generally look towards Europe and Africa, while West coasters face the Pacific and tend to glance towards Asia and Australia. The two coasts generally never see eye to eye (except maybe in national elections). The rest of the country, those in between, try not to look in either direction and like to pretend that the country ends at the Appalachians and the Sierra Nevada.

         The East Coast is symbolized by the great city of New York--- it’s highly urban, frenetic, crowded, cold, and challenging; whereas the West Coast is represented by Los Angeles: spread-out, layback, sunny, and somewhat artificial and frivolous. Take a neurotic New Yorker and place him in artificial L.A. and you have the basic plot of Noah Baumbach’s Greenberg.

           Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller), a 40-something former Angeleno who has been living in New York for the last fifteen years and who recently suffered a nervous breakdown, is house sitting in L.A. for his brother Phillip (Chris Messina), sister-in-law Carol (Susan Traylor) and their kids while they’re on an extended visit to Vietnam. Knowing Roger’s medical history, the family have asked Florence Marr (Greta Gerwig), the family’s assistant, to look in on Roger to see if he needs anything. Roger and Florence, for some unexplained reason, are attracted to each other and soon develop a relationship that’s stormy to say the least. Roger’s neurotic, erratic behavior and inability to make up his mind and Florence’s insecurities and defensiveness doom them both to an on-again, off-again relationship filled with fights, insensitive remarks (on Roger’s part), apologies (again on Roger’s part) followed by more misunderstandings. I won’t add any more plot details--- I don’t think they’re necessary to understand what this movie is really about. Just know that this is a character driven story set in a city known to be a refuge for oddballs and social pariahs. See the film to find out what happens.

            Roger and Florence are two different coasts separated by thousands of miles and looking in different directions. I’m not saying that Baumbach views New Yorkers as neurotic and Angelenos as insecure--- he’s aware that both cities have their share of both types. He’s simply saying that Roger’s neurotic borderline schizophrenia is only intensified in a place like Los Angeles, and Florence’s insecurities can only be magnified  in a relationship with a person like Roger. The attraction is there, but any closeness brings pain.

            In car crazy L.A. Roger does not drive; he stays indoors while most Angelenos are out driving, biking, and running. When he does go out, he walks or calls Florence or his former rock musician friend, Ivan (Rhys Ifans), to drive him. He’s a constant complainer and spends a lot of his time writing complaint letters to public officials. L.A.’s loose social scene is poison to him. He alienates everyone he comes in contact with: his one-time girlfriend Beth (Jennifer Jason Leigh), about whom he’s created a past fantasy, cuts him off immediately, his ex-band members want nothing to do with him, and even patient Ivan, who tries to get through, eventually is driven away by Roger’s insensitivity and abusiveness. Roger is plainly a jerk and a totally unsympathetic character. 

            So then, why see this movie? My answer is that it’s a well-acted, well-written, and well-thought out piece of work. Characters like Roger and Florence can be found in any city or town in America--- or anywhere in the world for that matter, but they seem to fit in more in a place like L.A. The city is a perfect backdrop for an off center romance. And Baumbach, a New York based filmmaker, gives a  pretty even-handed view of everyday life in the city. There are no East Coast put downs, or stereotypical depictions here--- no axes to grind. Roger’s brother’s house and neighborhood are rather typical but maybe just slightly a bit too upper middle class (but I imagine there’s a mortgage on the house). The bar where Greta sometimes sings is typical of any you’d find in Silver Lake or Los Feliz. The art party Florence attends in Echo Park is quite similar to some that I’ve been to myself. And, well, the scene in Musso & Frank’s (the best in the film in my estimation) lets you know that L.A. has not destroyed all the icons of its glamorous past. It still has some of its history left. 

             Greenberg is an East versus West movie, but done with subtlety and softness. Like Benjamin Braddock in The Graduate (1967), Roger Greenberg comes home to an alien Los Angeles in which he really never belonged, and never realizes that his problem is not in the society (city) around him--- but in himself.