MovieChat Forums > Greenberg (2010) Discussion > Do older people like this film...

Do older people like this film...


and younger people do not like it? I think middle aged and older can relate because like he said getting older sucks, "it's like WTF is happening?".
When you realize how fast the years go by it can be kinda scary.

reply

I'm older and I didn't like the movie at all. As played, I get the feeling Greenberg was a bitter pill when he was young, just as he was in middle age.

"He'd kill us if he got the chance."
--The Conversation

reply

I'm way older & I loved it. Not so much because "getting old sucks" (it doesn't, actually it gets better) but because I thought it was a well written & terrifically acted depiction of a pair of oddball individuals just trying to cope with a bunch of not very happy people & circumstances.

I'm really surprised at the hostile responses this film's garnered. It just shows how little empathy OR sympathy people have any more towards their fellows. I mean Greenberg just got out of a mental hospital, for petes sake, lets cut him some slack. I thought Stiller did a brilliant job of making this guy just funny & likable enough yet insecure & unpredictable. I've known my share of Greenbergs, believe me & I thought Greta Gerwig was sensational as well: goofy, sweet, naive.

My sense is that (younger?) audiences these days expect movies to tell them bedtime stories: they must either have happy endings depicting success & fame or action fantasies full of invincible superheroes. Greenberg just cuts too close to the bone. It demands objectivity & a sense of forgiveness, neither of which are in much abundance these days.

reply

It is difficult to feel a lot of sympathy for a mean spirited person like Greenberg. There was nothing about him that was nice on any level. A total narcissist, and a spoiled, pampered one at that.

But, I do put some of the blame for the failure of this character on Ben Stiller, a thoroughly unlikable actor. Had Mark Ruffalo played the role, I might have reacted differently. Ruffalo is an expert at taking basically unlikable characters and injecting humanity into them in such a way that the audience can relate. Stiller does not possess that talent.

"He'd kill us if he got the chance."
--The Conversation

reply

>Ben Stiller, a thoroughly unlikable actor.

I like him. He has an ironic twist to him, and a face to match. I get sick of portrayals of only pretty people.

reply

inframan, i agree with every one of your points. I once recommended a movie to a friend of mine because I thought she'd really be able to identify with the heroine. She HATED the movie - and I mean violently! I have noticed over the years that when people have such strong negative reactions towards characters in movies, they are way more like those characters than they care to admit. Ben Stiller made Greenberg so real, with so many characteristics that most people have in one way or another (self absorption, lack of empathy), that it's almost no wonder that there's such a hostile reaction to him. People can be pretty clueless about themselves, just as Greenberg was.

reply

I'm 49 and it did nothing for me. There is no way I would party with a bunch of 20 year olds. My biggest problem were the characters. I had a hard time caring about any of them. They just weren't a bright group.

reply

[deleted]

No clue what age has to do with it, but, yes, I am an older woman and I thought this was a very entertaining, very well-acted movie.

reply

I am an older, retired college prof. I hated, detested, this film and its characters. It is certainly one of the worst films I have ever--but ever--seen. I felt absolutely nothing for any of these characters. I sat through the entire movie because I was eating dinner and dessert while watching it. I felt Greenberg and Florence each needed a swift boot in the butt and told to get themselves together. But, then I would never have anything to do with people like this--perpetual adolescents. Life will probably give them enough kicks, but they probably won't recognize them as such and keep muddling on. Greenburg will still be muttering about his band on his death bed.

reply

26, and loved it.

I can absolutely imagine being Greenebrg in 15 years.

"Frosties are just Cornflakes for people who can't face reality!"

reply

cool username xD

reply

I'm 96 years old and couldn't hear a word.

I have wind.

I read a lot.

reply

This is the funniest comment I've read on IMDB.

reply

[deleted]

I am much older and I wasted 40 minutes on this film that was like, "Hey, we got some money so let's make a movie that is about nothing at all and we can give some jobs to our friends." To me, it's like literary fiction that blabs on about how good the writer is, but has no plot and says nothing. A waste of good time. This thing might be good if you can't sleep because it is like a sleeping pill.

reply