Hurt people hurt people

Hurt people hurt people. It’s true. When we’re angry we find ourselves taking it out on other people. It makes sense that when you’re hurt, you tend to inflict the same upon those around you, whether you are aware of it or not.

I saw the movie Greenberg tonight with Ben Stiller. This was a serious role for him and I was pleasantly surprised at his performance. I expected to keep picturing him playing Zoolander throughout the movie, but I didn’t. I never forgot that it was Ben Stiller, but he played his character well. I think a mark of a great actor or actress is when you forget who they are and only think about who they are playing. Tom Hanks. Meryl Streep. Kevin Spacey.

Anyway, “hurt people hurt people” was a line from the movie. Roger (Ben Stiller) was hurting inside, for an unknown reason, and you could see him hurting those around him. Lashing out. Pushing people away. And then he would feel bad. But it would happen again because the hurt never went away inside of him.

He is just out of a mental hospital in the beginning of the movie, but we don’t know what he was in there for or whether he is actually “better” or not. It’s hard to say because it’s obvious he still has a lot to deal with.

There are a lot of themes/storylines/whatever you want to call them that could have been delved into further. But my verdict on the movie is that it was different, sad, funny at times and something that made me turn my head to the side and go “Hm” at the very end.