Our Idiot Brother (**)
Directed by: Jesse Peretz
Starring: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer,
Kathryn Hahn, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, Rashida Jones, Shirley Knight, Adam
Scott, T.J. Miller, Matthew Mindler, Sterling K. Brown, Janet Montgomery
Seen: March 28th 2012
** Out of ****
Our Idiot Brother is a nowhere kind of movie, it’s not funny enough to
be labelled a comedy (which you would expect with a title like this), and the
serious parts are off-set by such ridiculous reasoning from all the supporting characters
that their impact wanes. All in all Our Idiot Brother is a rather pointless
movie with a quick-fade novelty: an extreme idealist so set in simply believing
the best of anyone that it beggars belief and that it borders on
self-mutilating idiocy.
When Ned (Rudd), a fresh-produce/weed farmer is approached by a police
officer who looks down on his luck, Ned sells him weed, promptly landing him in
prison. On release his hippie girlfriend Janet (Hahn) has moved on to a new boyfriend,
the well-meaning Billy (Miller). She chases Ned off her property, even refusing
to give him his dog, Willie Nelson. Ned must turn to family, and after living
with his mom (Knight) for a short while, he decides on moving in with one of
his three sisters, Liz (Mortimer). Liz’s husband Dylan (Coogan) is filming a
documentary about a ballerina, but there is definitely more between Dylan and
said ballerina that he would readily confess to. Their son River (Mindler)
takes to Ned quickly, but Liz and Dylan are not too happy with what River picks
up.
Ned’s other sisters also have complex lives, with Natalie (Deschanel) the
“omni-sexual” one, pretty much open for anything, and Miranda (Banks) the
ambitious Vanity Fair reporter. Natalie is currently in a lesbian relationship
with Cindy (Jones), but gets involved with her artist friend Christian (Dancy).
Miranda and her neighbour Jeremy (Scott) are secretly in love with each other,
but would rather find insulting ways of justifying the two of them not being
together. As everyone thinks Ned is a complete retard, they both remorselessly
abuse his good will and simply do not bother with keeping their mouths shut in
front of Ned. So when Ned, in good nature, starts spreading news, all tempers
flare up against him and in a moment of weakness he not only smokes weed again,
but confesses this to his patient parole officer, Omar (Brown), leaving his
sisters behind to realise the impacts of their lives and deal with it all.
Our Idiot Brother is well produced and the actors do a decent job of
bringing a flaccid screenplay to spluttering half-life. The only noticeable
character arc in the movie is not a character arc at all, it is just a
revelation combined with the realisation of what Ned actually is, apparently
not that big of an idiot as assumed by all. No other character reaches an
epiphany moment, and while they act on an impulsive moment that brings
resolution, none of it seems redeeming and not one of them shows any kind of
remorse for their selfish actions – they simply go on as if going on like this
is enough of an apology or redemptive measure. The movie falls flat at various
places while trying to create awkward or stupid moments, and only a select few
of them are really interesting / entertaining at all. Our Idiot Brother is
pointless, and I can’t promise to remember much of it by next week.
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