The Journey with Jesus: Film Reviews
Film Reviews by Dan Clendenin
Greenberg (2010)
Everyone in this dark romantic comedy is "living a life they didn't plan" and trying to discover the meaning of adulthood. Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller) is a carpenter from New York City who's had a nervous break down and goes to house sit for his brother in LA. He's forty-one, specializes in writing letters of complaint about trivial matters, is concentrating on "doing nothing," fails at re-connecting with former friends, and muses that not only is youth wasted on the young, but that "life is wasted on people." He's attracted to his brother's nanny, Florence, who laments that she's five years out of college and "no one cares if I get up in the morning." The family dog racks up a $3000 vet bill with an auto-immune sickness that has him on blood thinners, prednisone, and antibiotics. Greenberg feels like a pale imitation of a Woody Allen film in which the characters wrestle with their overwrought neuroses. "Hurt people hurt people," Florence muses.