While We're Young (2014)

While We're Young - directed by Noah Baumbach - is the story of forty-somethings Josh and Cornelia (Ben Stiller and Naomi Watts) and their growing friendship - and in some cases idolisation - with twenty-somethings Jamie and Darby (Adam Driver and Amanda Seyfried).

Josh is a documentary filmmaker who has been working on his current project for the last ten years, meaning he and Cornelia have had to forgo other things they might have wanted to do with their lives. Unfortunately for Josh, there is something not quite right with the documentary, and he doesn't seem to be able to work out what that something is.

When he meets Jamie and his wife Darby, there is something about this young energetic couple that awakens something in him and in Cornelia.

Jamie is also trying to make a documentary of his own, and Josh takes him under his wing in a way to help him out, perhaps seeing something of himself in the young filmmaker.

As the friendship between these couples develops, Josh and Cornelia's other friendships seem to fall by the wayside, due to them spending almost all of their time with Jamie and Darby.

Josh's relationship with his father-in-law (played with a beautiful subtlety by Charles Grodin) is also strained. Grodin's character is/was also a documentarian, but has enjoyed significantly more success than Josh has. He tries to give Josh advice about his current project, but it doesn't seem that Josh wants to take his advice.

I don't want to go into too much detail, because I feel that would spoil your own potential enjoyment of this film, but I will take a moment to talk about some of the underlying themes as I see them. The idea of documentary, and fact vs. fiction, plays a big part in this story. Most of the characters are at some point lying either simply to themselves or to others about who they really are and how they really feel. This does of course make for many large-scale disagreements further down the track, and it isn't until each of them are able to be honest - first with themselves, later with each other - that things can even begin to change for them.

Ultimately, this film is about the choices we make in life, and the fact that each of us is a product of the choices we have already made, and the choices we continue to make each day. If we want to change ourselves for the better, perhaps we need to change some of the choices we make.

There are a lot of laughs to be had in this film, but it also allows for a lot of tears. It is a wonderfully heartfelt piece of cinematic art, and I feel there is a lot to digest after watching the film, perhaps I will have more to say about it once it has percolated in my mind a little longer.

6 1/2 out of 10.