A quiet comedy of desperation and poor manners, Greenberg sees Ben Stiller play the eponymous Roger Greenberg, a 40-year-old Brooklyn carpenter who has come to Los Angeles to house-sit for his wealthier brother. While floundering around trying to hook up with former Californian cohorts including Rhys Ifans, he befriends his brother’s assistant, Florence (Greta Gerwig), a slightly slow-witted 25-year-old who may be even more of a loser than Greenberg himself.
Written by director Noah Baumbach and his life-partner Jennifer Jason Leigh (who pops up as Greenberg’s ex-girlfriend), the script is funnier and lighter than the relentlessly grim machinations of Mr. Baumbach’s Margot At The Wedding without ever hitting the same deft comic form as his debut feature, The Squid and the Whale.
Mr. Stiller, as ever, is impressively neurotic, though Ms. Gerwig, an actress who is often referred to as Ms. Mumblecore, can cross the line between post Gen X cool and annoying inarticulacy.