Berlinale ’10: Greenberg, The Ghost Writer

A survey of the “Oscary” films playing at Berlinale ’10

Ben Stiller and Baumbach spouse Jennifer Jason Leigh star in Baumbach's "Greenberg"

I thoroughly enjoyed The Squid and the Whale, but Baumbach has been unable to recapture that since. The trailer for “Greenberg” didn’t inspire too much confidence and the critical consensus seems to agree on this front.

Todd McCarthy at Variety finds the film’s unconventional stylings a treat but a touch inexplicable and cold in its languidness:

“I just don’t know what I’m doing with my life,” declares the 25-year-old nanny/assistant played by Greta Gerwig in “Greenberg,” and the same could be said of everyone else who drifts through Noah Baumbach’s unemphatically comic new feature. As a study of stasis and of people conscious of not living the lives they had imagined for themselves, the picture offers a bracing undertow of seriousness beneath the deceptively casual, dramatically offhand surface, even if the characters’ vague ambitions and aimless actions leave the film seeming relatively uneventful on a moment-to-moment basis.

THR’s Kirk Honeycutt goes to bat for the film with considerably more gusto, calling it more of the Baumbach-same but with significantly less (if any) laughs. He is bothered by the unsympathetic depiction of the characters and setting, which suffer from a repetitive structure to the script:

Noah Baumbach again investigates psychologically screwed-up people, although this time with much less comedic impact…such is the repetitive nature of the story that the characters go in continual circles. Those circles do widen though so you gain a greater appreciation of the root cause of Roger’s dysfunctional behavior. But understanding is one thing, sympathy another.

Screen Daily appreciates the delicate balancing act on display, admiring the performances of Stiller and Gerwig but is put off by the “forensic” one-note plotting of the characters that hammer home emotional wreckage at every possible opportunity:

The attention to detail in the characterisations is often forensic and none of the characters comes across as anything but damaged

Oscar prospects: Original Screenplay is probably it’s only shot (and a long one at that), being a tiny film unlikely to greet mainstream audiences. Most likely it’ll get lost in the shuffle just like his other people-are-damaged flick Margot at the Wedding.

Ewan McGregor has the lead in Polanski's "The Ghost Writer"

I didn’t really go for “Repulsion”, my only Polanski outing, so I’m keeping my cards close to the chest on this one.

Derek Elly finds little to like in Polanski’s latest, citing the stock literalness of the adaptation as the culprit for an absence of tension and a thin central performance by Ewan McGregor:

With a few exceptions, and necessary tightening, it’s pretty much all up on the screen — page by page of plot, line by line of dialogue — in one of the most literal adaptations (by the British journo-turned-novelist himself) since the Harry Potter series. Low on sustained tension, and with a weak central perf by Ewan McGregor in the titular role, “The Ghost Writer” looks set for moderate biz at best in Europe, with much briefer haunting of North American sales.

Kirk Honeycutt is opposed, drinking in a tension that “creeps into every word and deed”. He praises Polanski’s seemingly innate talent for crafting nail-bitting thrills, drawing a comparison to Hitchkock at his sleekest and most sinister:

Roman Polanski is a filmmaker who could envelop an old lady’s stroll along a boulevard with a sense of anxiety and dread, so it’s a little odd that he hasn’t made more thrillers in his career. “The Ghost Writer,” an out-and-out thriller with international politics and war crimes as its background, gives him a springboard to take a deep dive into all the moody atmosphere, breathtaking betrayals, words loaded in double meanings and heart-stopping threats that make the genre so cinematic.

Screen Daily’s Fionnuala Halligan finds the film an “stylish, precise tribute to Hitchkock’s thrillers” populated by terrific performances by McGregor and Brosnan:

A stylish, precise salute to Hitchcock’s thrillers but still bearing all the hallmarks of Roman Polanski’s distinctive style, The Ghost Writer is an effortless take on Robert Harris’ best-selling novel and a film lover’s delight…Ewan McGregor is a rediscovery in the title role of the Ghost and thankfully Pierce Brosnan doesn’t deliver an impersonation of Tony Blair

Oscar prospects: None (forseeably). Hampered by its genre leanings and soft “welcome back” reviews, don’t expect anyone associated with this to be near the Kodak in a year’s time.

Next up: The Nicole Holofcener-Catherine Keener colloboration “Please Give”, Jennifer Lawrence of “The Burning Plain” acclaim in “Winter’s Bone” and the curious street artist doc “Exit from The Gift Shop” from equally curious cult street artist Banksy.