I'd held off on watching this one, as Ben Stiller hasn't done it for me in a long time, and to be honest the idea of watching 90 minutes of kvetching didn't really strike me as a fun time. I knew vaguely that it was about a Jew going thru a mid life crisis, but that's about it.
Anyhoo, Stiller is pretty damn good in this, especially in the later parts. The film is pretty light on dialog early on, focusing more on eye and body movement to get across the tribulations of the main character. Words come in short bursts and almost always deliver.
There are two main story lines throughout. One is Greenbergs love interest, the nanny of his Brother, whose house he is staying at while the rest of the family is away on vacation. The other is the relationship with his best friend, whom he was in a band with many years ago. The band was about to sign a record contract when the titular character backed out, and that theme runs under a lot of their relationship until a magnificent scene near the end of the movie.
The love story didn't really grab me, but the relationship with his best friend provided the best scenes of the movie and I wish that was more of the focus, but what can ya do.
It's slow in parts early, and to be honest, I don't know how well done it is. It's a movie that I'd probably have to watch again to get a feel for the setup, but the conclusion played out very strongly for me, and easily brought this up to a must watch recommendation.
It's whiny yes, and at times you just want kick Greenberg in the nuts, but it develops it's third act strongly, and then delivers with gusto.
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