Greta Gerwig is the utter saving grace for what was an awfully off-putting dramedy. Hell, she’s charming, funny, adorable, and her character is obnoxious yet likable as this young woman who is so utterly self-absorbed and yet will easily bewitch the audience with her quirky and rather off the wall woman whose own desires adjusts to whomever she sets her sights on, and whomever she feels can apply satisfaction to her. Gerwig was a wise casting choice for a character that may have been rather despicable with another actress at the helm. Swanberg’s knack for realism is really just entertaining at times. There are very few writers willing to attempt characterization and then just outright interrupt it for the sake of weaving us into the fold of this group whose conversations often overlap each other’s. It’s realism that’s so apt, and Swanberg excels at such a feat.

Twenty-something’s deal with life and relationships. That’s what the general description I read was, and lord behold I did not find it appealing. Reviewing movies tends to bring you at the front door of about fifty mumble core movies a year, and it’s tiring. Since the vastly overrated “The Big Chill,” there’s simply not a single independent film that doesn’t eventually linger on whiny bitchy adults lingering on past relationships and dreams they failed to pursue. “Hannah Takes the Stairs” is another of that ilk and while it’s not horrible, it’s truly mediocre. I simply could not find why this film deserved any sense of praise beyond “just pretty good,” and that’s coming from someone who approached the film with sheer optimism. I’m tired of focusing on white All-American twenty something’s whose only goal to pursue is find a good partner to be with. Is it possible to feature characters whose ambitions reach farther?

Like all the other presumptuous directors, Swanberg basically stuffs us in a room with this group of people who all sit in a circle musing on life and hoping to stumble into love, all the while they cave in on themselves once they find an intimate relationship. Swanberg sometimes succeeds in increasing the sense of realism in certain sequences, but the conversations and attempted anti-narrative just fail in muddled acting, and a story that simply goes nowhere. “Hannah Takes the Stairs” has a lot of potential that basically is pissed away in exchange for the usual old relationship musings you can find almost anywhere these days. Characters just crash into one another to talk about themselves, and the dialogue is often so clunky, even when delivered with enough realistic beats. “Hannah Takes the Stairs” is just a rambling and droning affair that pretty much blasts away any and all possibilities of being above mediocre.

While not terrible thanks to the saving grace of Gerwig, it’s pretty much a mediocre drama that treads over the same old ground many indie directors think is so damn fascinating; lingering on twenty something moronic privileged white youths “getting real,” all of which looks like it should be on an Off Off Off Broadway play in the Village.

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