Young and listless

Ervell E. Menezes

While We’re Young is a real mixed bag. While one is inclined to think “we’re” should have been past tense guess director Noah Baumbach wants middle-aged pair Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts) to stay forever young. That this couple is going through rough times sort of identifies them. Most of their friends have children and this keeps the couple more to themselves. Cornelia has had miscarriages, so it isn’t not for lack of trying.
But things change dramatically when they run into mid-20s Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) who seem to be so ‘alive’.
Incidentally, Josh is a documentary filmmaker in a block after his initial effort and keeps wondering whether documentaries can be personal. Coincidentally, Jamie has seen Josh’s film and is impressed. So, the two couples get along like a house on fire. In between, they discuss cinema and try and figure out how objective can objectivity be. At this point it looks like a parody on cinema but director Bombach is not too sure what he wants. That Josh’s pa-in-law Leslie Breit-batt (Charles Grodin) is an established filmmaker makes the plot even more curious.
To start with, the establishing shots are weak. And with so much on his plate director Bombach tends to go round and round in circles, the worst hit being the viewer.
Ben Stiller hams his way around and could have been worse but Adam Driver shows promise. Naomi Watts and Amanda Seyfried are wasted and Charles Grodin scarcely recognizable in this eminently avoidable movie.