Plot
A middle-aged couple's career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives.
Release Year: 2014
Rating: 7.2/10 (476 voted)
Critic's Score: 84/100
Director: Noah Baumbach
Stars: Ben Stiller, Naomi Watts, Adam Driver
Storyline
A middle-aged couple's career and marriage are overturned when a disarming young couple enters their lives.
Cast: Ben Stiller -
Josh
Naomi Watts -
Cornelia
Amanda Seyfried -
Darby
Adam Driver -
Jamie
Maria Dizzia -
Marina
Charles Grodin -
Leslie
Brady Corbet -
Kent
Dree Hemingway -
Tipper
Greta Lee -
Adam Senn -
Bartender
Adam Horovitz -
James Saito -
Dr. Kruger
Todd Rohal -
Brian Duges
Matthew Maher -
Tim
Jessica Treubig -
Hip-Hop Dancer
Trivia: Greta Gerwig was cast but dropped out due to scheduling conflicts. Amanda Seyfried replaced her. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 6/10
Noah Baumbach's film concerning a documentary filmmaker and his wife
who have lost their friends to the baby track is disappointing. The
couple, Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts, meet up with a younger couple
played by Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried, re-spark their lives but
questions creep in about what the younger couple is really after, and
what is the right path in life.
To be honest the film is enjoyable on its own terms. It has laughs and
is occasionally strangely moving.
The problem with the film is that the terms of the film are kind of
messed up. The film has a big subtext concerning honesty in documentary
films and a quest by Stiller's character to uncover what the Adam
Driver character is doing- the problem is the film subverts it and
throws it aside in the final minutes. The collapse begins when the
Charles Grodin character, a respected documentary filmmaker makes a
speech about integrity and then two minutes later says that everything
he had just said (and said pretty much in the film up to that point)
doesn't matter. Its a wtf moment that had myself and more than a few
people in the audience at The New York Film Festival scratching our
heads. The film's the collapse is kind of complete at the end of the
film which is a kind of out of left field turn for the Watts and
Stiller character. The ending kind of throws numerous plot lines aside
and is a feel good moment that feels contrived.
When the film ended I was left confused. What was Baumbach going for?
After the NYFF screening someone in the audience asked Baumbach the
questions I wanted to. He said that all that mattered was the final bit
of the film. That was what he was going for and everything he was doing
was for that. He also added that we shouldn't have paid any attention
to the integrity/making a documentary stuff since he only put it in so
that the Stiller character had something to do. We weren't suppose to
have paid attention to that since that isn't what the film was about.
Really?
Without that the film really isn't about anything. Without it the film
doesn't have a reason to be seen.
Truthfully I don't hate the film, I hate its construction. The film has
moments and characters but its as morally bankrupt as the Adam Driver
character.
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