OUR IDIOT BROTHER Review: Heartfelt And Funny
Like a great shining beacon of hope in the Mean-Spirited Comedy Summer of 2011, Our Idiot Brother boasts a heartfelt message delivered through Paul Rudd’s unfiltered, socially retarded but almost preternaturally good-hearted Ned.
rating: 4
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Like a great shining beacon of hope in the Mean-Spirited Comedy Summer of 2011, Our Idiot Brother boasts a heartfelt message delivered through Paul Rudds unfiltered, socially retarded but almost preternaturally good-hearted Ned. Director Jesse Peretz (who also directed Rudd in The Ex and 2001s little-seen The Château), working from a screenplay by Evgenia Peretz and her husband David Schisgall, delivers a breezily paced comedy enlivened by a top-notch indie cast. With only a clichéd third act to run down the films merits, Brother deserves much praise for taking the road not traveled and avoiding glorifying an ego-driven, potty-mouthed protagonist. Ned is, for all involved, something of an idiot savant whos neither idiotic nor particularly learned, rather just out of touch with the fast-paced lives of his three very different sisters. When Neds moral code lands him in jail after selling pot to a uniformed officer, he is released for good behavior and returns to his farm only to find that former girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Hahn) has moved on to new flame Billy (T.J. Miller, who absolutely steals scenes with a proper pause and slurred diction). The dialogue between Ned and Janet immediately sets the scene for what could potentially be a been-there-done-that tromp into stereotype zone, with the hippie-of-yesteryear brother showing his family how to live a carefree life. Luckily, the film has more on its mind than that and the screenwriters know that that concept has been wrung out and hung to dry, so they rarely make fun of the fact that Ned leads an almost stupefyingly simple existence. With his tail between his legs and his beloved dog Willie Nelson in the care of Janet, Ned flees back home to his non-judgmental mother and three sisters - Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), a career-obsessed writer with a looming Vanity Fair piece; Liz (Emily Mortimer), a career mom with a baby daughter and a son whose ascension into private school ranks is critical to her husband Dylan (Steve Coogan); and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), a free-spirit etching out a comedy club routine while pondering her relationship with Cindy (Rashida Jones). Ned soon tires of sleeping in his childhood bedroom and shuffles from sister to sister, each more reluctant than the last to take him on.