'Greenberg' falls between two stools

Director: Noah Baumbach

Cast: Ben Stiller, Rhys Ifans, Greta Gerwig

Cert: 16

Roger Greenberg (Stiller) isn’t easy to like, on almost every level. He doesn’t relate easily to people and lives life on a constant downer.

He escapes New York and his troubles to housesit for his brother in Los Angeles, where he insists constantly he’s “doing nothing”, meets and falls for the brother’s nanny, Florence (Gerwig) and re-meets an old friend (Ifans).

This is a character-driven drama that manages to be funny in places without being a comedy and romantic without being a romance.

It’s a difficult drama to get through, even with Stiller bringing us his best performance for a long time and Gerwig stealing the film as the attractive main squeeze, and in the end will garner decidedly mixed reviews.

Star Rating: 3/5