While We’re Young, Review: Means and ends

Documentary film-maker and lecturer Josh (Ben Stiller) and his wife Cornelia (Naomi Watts) are a middle-aged New York couple who befriend a free-spirited, liberal younger couple, Jamie (Adam Driver) and Darby (Amanda Seyfried). The young couple claim to be fans of his, and Jamie is an aspiring documentary-maker himself. Josh is struggling on the post-production of his new documentary film about leftist intellectual Ira Mandelstam (Peter Yarrow) and wants to add some footage to be shot in Turkey. While both husband and wife, still issueless, are struggling to try and have children, Cornelia is not so keen because of two miscarriages. In his heart, Josh too is also not too keen to put Cornelia through the ordeal, having seen her discomfort during the previous occasions.

Jamie and Darby invite Josh and Cornelia to an Ayahuasca ceremony, involving a shaman and drinking a liquid that triggers vomiting among all. There, a hallucinating Cornelia gets amorous with Jamie, while Jamie receives Josh's approval in helping with the production of his film, although he declines to co-direct it. Josh avoids getting finance from his father-in-law, Leslie Breitbart (Charles Grodin), a renowned documentary producer, partly because of arrogance and partly because of self-respect. This reaches a crescendo when Leslie suggests some changes in the film. Leslie and Cornelia set out to help Jamie on his film, unaware that Jamie is an unscrupulous fame-seeker, who is manipulating them right through.

'There's a song to be sung

And the best time is to sing while we're young'

--Cliff Richard singing The Young Ones, in the 1961 film of the same name.

Did these lines inspire the title of the film? Writer-director Noah Baumbach (Kicking and Screaming, The Squid and the Whale, Margot at the Wedding and Frances Ha), 45, has woven in a lot of music in the film, but there’s no Cliff. Yet, it is highly likely that he found the phrase apt and made it his title. While there is a clear conflict of values between the 40 something couple and the 25 year-old pair, mainly the men, there is also a clash between the film director and his bank-roller father-in-law. There is another area of friction, emanating from the fact that lead couple is childless, while their friend circle is full of parents, one couple having joined the club just as the film begins.

The script is detailed and the plot is carefully delineated. Quotes from Ibsen’s The Master Builder are the first visuals you see in the film, and a few minutes into screen time, you know this writer has a way with narrative (Baumbach’s parents are film critic Georgia Brown and fiction writer Jonathan Baumbach, who divorced when Noah was 14. The Squid and the Whale was inspired by the separation). There is a lot of face-to-face conversation, not very common in recent films. While technology (mainly IT) is administered in small, subtle doses, the vomiting marathon tests your patience. The same can be said about Cornelia’s stints at the hip-hop dancing classes. Jamie’s elaborate scheme and hidden agenda come across as a little too incredible, while some of the incidents in the second-half arise out of co-incidences. Sugar-coated as a light romantic comedy, While We’re Young is much more than that. It is about ethics and morals and about favouring the similar. In this context, one scene that stands out is when Josh and Cornelia land-up unannounced at Marina and Fletcher’s home. In another well-executed tragi-comic scene, Josh is told by a doctor that he has arthritis but just cannot accept the fact.

Ben Stiller (Flirting with Disaster, Meet the Parents, Tropic Thunder, There’s Something About Mary) is Baumbach’s lead star once again, after 2012’s Frances Ha. He moulds himself very well as Josh, mouths some bitter, self-deprecating dialogue, and even gets to do some mimicry. British actress Naomi Watts (The Impossible, King Kong, The Painted Veil, The Ring) is a good Cornelia. Their same age-group friends Marina and Fletcher, who have just had a baby, are played by Maria Dizzia and Adam Horovitz. Ira Mandelstam, probably Baumbach’s take on Noam Chomsky, is naturally done by Peter Yarrow. With his height and (unconventional, menacing) looks, and uncommon diction Adam Driver is a good foil to the diminutive Stiller. A lot has been said about his face, which is a kind of giveaway that he is up to no good. Amanda Seyfried fits the character well. Charles Grodin is convincing as ever. There is little to fault on the well-thought casting.    

Music by James Murphy includes tracks and cover versions as diverse as Vivaldi, Danny Kaye, Lionel Richie, Survivor, Paul McCartney, David Bowie and Vangelis (the Ayahuasca ceremony).

Do ends justify means? Is compromise bad? Is belonging to the crowd vital? How difficult is it to accept that when you begin to age, old-age diseases will follow? While We’re Young uses uncommon individuals to highlight common, everyday phenomena.

Rating: ***

Trailer: http://screenrant.com/while-were-young-trailer/