An average movie

I wasn’t really sure what to expect from this flick but since it was starring Ben Stiller, I thought I might as well check it out. Basically, most of the duration was some kind of inner dialogue but it did help that Ben Stiller was pretty good here. In fact, I can’t remember the last time that I actually saw him in a movie and, to be honest, he did spend most of his career playing some similar characters. Still, he was fine here and I did appreciate the realistic approach they took to tell this tale. Unfortunately, I’m afraid the damned thing still didn’t really work, at least, not for me. The main issue I had was that the main character was such a pathetic neurotic narcissist. I mean, sure, I get that he was going through some middle-life crisis but I really had a hard time to root for the guy or care about was he going through. I mean, it was especially annoying to hear him complain about his wife because she was, according to him, too ‘positive’ and ‘supportive’. Seriously, it would look great on some divorcing papers. There were some moments during which the guy would eventually snap out of it but it never did last for very long, I’m afraid. Coming back on the middle-life crisis thingy, it could have been helpful if there would have been some counterpoint, something displaying that Brad didn’t always feel this way. However, since it wasn’t there, I actually had the feeling that the guy had always been such an annoying whining entitled dude. At some point, he did pull some ‘American Beauty’ move and met some way-too-young-for-him college student but the way she described him as suffering some baseless privileged White Man complex was rather priceless and completely spot-on. The way he also rejected the criticism showed how clueless and borderline insufferable the guy actually was. Anyway, to conclude, in spite of its flaws, I have to admit it was still a decent watch though and I think it is worth a look, especially if you like the genre.