Greenberg (2010)

Ben Stiller in Noah Baumbach's "Greenberg."

The funniest scene in “Greenberg” takes place when the title character, cynical and moody 40-year-old misanthrope Roger Greenberg (Ben Stiller), becomes angry at a motorist for not yielding the right of way as he crosses a street one day on foot in Los Angeles. Annoyed at such an egregious vehicular faux pas, Roger slaps the slow moving car as it passes. Sure, he starts running when it stops, but not before his semi-heroic gesture strikes a blow for the rights of pedestrians everywhere.

It’s the one moment in the film that Roger seems like a regular guy worth rooting for. The rest of the time in “Greenberg”—writer-director Noah Baumbach’s funny but prickly ode to irascibility and middle age disillusionment—he’s just kind of a jerk.

Having once moved from L.A. to New York and failing to make it as a musician, Roger finds himself back on the west coast, working marginally as a carpenter and house-sitting for his younger brother who is going away for a couple weeks as the film opens. Roger promises to build a dog house for the brother’s German shepherd.

While at the house, Roger meets his brother’s assistant, the sweet and amiable Florence (Greta Gerwig), who ambles by to look after the dog and sometimes fetches groceries. As they get to know each other, Florence is remarkably able to see the sadness and vulnerability that lies beyond Roger’s bitter exterior and the two become unlikely friends and even unlikelier sexual partners.

But can this good-hearted young soul possibly sweeten the sour, morose old curmudgeon? Luckily, “Greenberg” is far from the clichéd land of the typical romantic comedy, so don’t expect any of the usual redemptive mush. Baumbach’s film is a kind of subversive character study; it works even though sometimes Roger’s angry disillusionment gives way to mean-spiritedness.

Ben Stiller, in the kind of role that Bill Murray might play, is effective but doesn’t quite have Murray’s sarcastic wit or deadpan understatement. The real prize of “Greenberg” is probably Greta Gerwig, whose natural sweetness and likability keep the movie from spilling over into excessive, depressing levels of rancor.