Greenberg is a movie directed by Noah Baumbach and starring Ben Stiller about a forty something New Yorker that has come to a crossroads in his life and is trying to sort things out. http://www.flixster.com/movie/greenberg

Roger Greenberg is a man who has come to a point in his life where he must come to terms with what he has done with his life. After being released from a mental hospital where he was treated for a mental breakdown he still seems to be wallowing in all his problems including his past attempts at being a musician and his apparent success as a carpenter in New York. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/movie-review-stiller-reveals-new-depth-gerwig-delivers-breakout-performance-in-greenberg-87656707.html He heads back to his home in Los Angeles where his brother now lives and settles into watching the house and taking care of the dog while his brother and his family head off on a vacation to Vietnam. While there he attempts to reconnect with a former band mate Ivan Schrank, played by Rys Ifans and then with former girlfriend Beth, played by Jennifer Jason Leigh. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/movie-review-stiller-reveals-new-depth-gerwig-delivers-breakout-performance-in-greenberg-87656707.html Roger finds that his brother’s assistant is to help him take care of the dog and quite against his will he begins to form an attachment to her. Florence, played by Greta Gerwig, is an aspiring musician and also appears to be a doormat in search a good stomping and at times Stiller’s character a nasty person with some seriously heavy boots. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/movie-review-stiller-reveals-new-depth-gerwig-delivers-breakout-performance-in-greenberg-87656707.html These two begin to form a sort of on again off again relationship that both of them seem to be at times pulling towards and then running away from. The dog Mahler appropriately functions as the magnet that keeps pulling them back together. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/movie-review-stiller-reveals-new-depth-gerwig-delivers-breakout-performance-in-greenberg-87656707.html

• Ben Stiller

• Greta Gerwig

• Chris Messina

• Rhys Ifans

Noah Baumbach established his credentials rather spectacularly with The Squid and The Whale a story about two boys growing up amid the debacle of their parents’ divorce. http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051103/REVIEWS/51018003/1023 This was followed by Margot at The Wedding which some consider to be a bit of a stumble by Baumbach, but Greenberg is considered by some to be a return to excellent directing. http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/entertainment/movie-review-stiller-reveals-new-depth-gerwig-delivers-breakout-performance-in-greenberg-87656707.html