Recently released to DVD, Noah Baumbach‘s Greenberg stars Ben Stiller in a role that demonstrates an audacious will to step outside his comedy-for-dummies stereotype and play a multi-level, emotional, still funny but also serious character – and play it well.

Roger Greenberg (Stiller) is an out-of-work carpenter who has committed himself to doing nothing with his life for a while.  Previously living in New York, Roger returns to his hometown of Los Angeles to watch his brother’s home during a family vacation to Vietnam.  When confronted with old friends – his old bandmate Ivan (Rhys Ifans) who remains bitter about Roger’s decision to back out of a record deal many years ago, his old girlfriend Beth (Jennifer Jason Leigh, who co-wrote the film) who wants nothing to do with him romantically, and many other not-so-friendly faces – Roger easily falls victim to habitual anxiety, the reason for his recent time in an institution.  Spending his days inside his brother’s mansion-style home, he soon meets the family assistant, young and pretty Florence (Greta Gerwig) and begins a strange, complicated relationship with her despite their 20-year age difference.

Ben Stiller is awkward and excellent throughout in this roller-coaster plot, and Greenberg certainly helped me appreciate him as a person and an actor.  However, the film’s new face, Greta Gerwig, really steals the show with her genuine appearance and natural acting skills.  Together, the two take a jumbled, somewhat typical storyline and make it worth watching.

Packed with romance, hardship, sex, drugs, unsure emotions, humor, and even a bit of action and suspense, Greenberg is an uncomfortable realistic journey that offers something relative for everyone.