Wow, it is really hard to know what to say about this movie. Stiller's depiction of Roger Greenberg approaches perfection--you end the movie feeling like you know this guy. You can not stand him, but you know him. He has the one potential saving grace that he is just discharged from a stay in a mental health institution for reasons that we don't specifically know, but can imagine would affect him. He seems blunted, which could be medication, but pretty quickly it becomes apparent it is him. He is blunted. He is a man who didn't quite emerge, and while he is not apologetic about that, he does seem to grow through the movie to accept that maybe he is missing something afterall.
Stiller does an amazing job (and the script clearly helps this along) of portraying a narcissist, a person who appears full of himself, and yet is unbearably fragile. Not able to admit his frailties because the damage that would cause him is too great, and yet kind of pathetic in his current persona. Struggling within and struggling to get out.
This is not an easy movie, nor is it particularly entertaining, but it does stick with you. You want to shake these people. Go to the third world, see people with real problems, then call me. They are the detritis of the consumption society we have become. Not a pleasant message. But a message well told.
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