While We're Young Review

Hip To Be Square

Ben Stiller has built an entire career on playing the casual everyman, the kind of guy who thrives on routine and doesn't want irregularities or anomalies interrupting his existence. There are certainly exceptions in his vast filmography (namely in his character Derek Zoolander and his Anchorman cameo where delivers the immortal line "Buenos noches bitches!"), but that kind of calm yet easily flustered persona has dominated his work in recent years. It's the kind of role he reprises in While We're Young, though this particular feature allows for a bit more depth to be applied to this archetype.

For Josh (Ben Stiller) and Cornelia (Naomi Watts), married life isn't bad per se, but rather just more pedestrian. Early sequences depicting them going through their everyday routine, justifying to themselves and each other why they can't do exciting things (namely go on exotic vacations), do a fine job of establishing the pervasive atmosphere of monotony that consumes the duos lives. A simple exchange over the wattage of a light-bulb that keeps Josh awake at night accomplishes more at conveying the duos discomfort with the state of their lives than if they had gone the traditional route and had the couple engaging in loud, confrontation arguments.

That kind of choice that avoids the basic storytelling routes is really nice to see in Noah Baumbachs script (he also directs), and it continues once Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried) enter the picture. These two are a much younger couple who are driven by spontaneity, pop culture and embracing the unexpected, which captivates Cornelia and (primarily) Josh. The four characters have a warm rapport that makes scenes with the simplest structure (such as Jamie and Josh having a meal on the town) interesting.

Unfortunately, the story soon feels the desire to drum up some conflict, which isn't bad inherently, but the way While We're young creates friction is by centering the focus solely on Josh and his jealousy of Jamie. Prior to this skirmish, the joy of the film has been its larger focus, which has allowed for more development of characters like Jamie and Cornelia. All of a sudden, we the audience are stuck with Josh and his inner quandaries, and aside from a subtle moment involving him witnessing his friends and family being enthralled by Jamie's documentary, his storyline just didn't beguile me.

On the other hand, Cornelias various antics in the movie are actually the best part of the movie, and if the plot had to shift focus to solely one character at one point, why couldn't it be her?  Her and Darby partaking in a hip-hop class makes for a quite amusing sequence (especially when she shows off her newfound dancing moves to Josh later on to his bewilderment), and her desire to not have children leads to some interesting interactions with other characters. If only Josh's conflict that takes up the majority of the feature was half as compelling as Cornelia's adventures, While We're Young could have been a more enthralling cohesive whole.