Our Idiot Brother (co-written by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall and directed by her brother Jesse Peretz) is a feel-good indie comedy about a zany family and their aloof, sweetheart brother. In the future I will use the term "a feel-good indie comedy about a zany family and their aloof, sweetheart brother" as a euphemism for boring and stupid. This movie is so proud of its small weirdness that it covers all liberal bases (that is, it's a movie that liberals... well, white people, would love): pot smoking/dealing, lesbians, documentary filmmaking, dogs and being nice. All of these things, of course, when listed like this, are treacly and flaccid. There is really nothing different between this film and a list of things.
Ned (oh, isn't that a wonderful name for a doofus!) (Paul Rudd) is a hippie who sells organic vegetables at farmers' markets in suburbia. He has a naïve sense of the world, one where he doesn't understand how people lie to move along and how those lies should be met with some level of skepticism on his part. One day he's arrested for selling pot to a uniformed policeman and goes to jail. When he gets out he moves in with each of his tree sisters in succession (all of whom live in New York City) for a spell.
He ends up changing their lives (at first for the worse, but ultimately for the better) by being wide-eyed and having no ability to keep his mouth shut. He doesn't understand that when his brother-in-law says he is shooting his documentary of a dancer in the nude to get closer to his subject, that he's actually is lying to cover up the affair he's having. He reports this tidbit ("Did you know he shoots the documentary in the nude?") but doesn't realize that it's effectively going to end his sister's marriage (probably for the best, of course). He changes everyone's life, but not on purpose. He stumbles into being a good person, but is really just a loser all along.
Rudd is good, but the character he plays is really annoying. There's only so much stupidity I can tolerate as "he's just a well-meaning guy" before I want to take him by the shoulders and shake him to get him to realize he's being dumb. Are we really supposed to think he's just this aloof because he smokes a lot of drugs? Is there something here that "some people are just free-spirits and don't understand subtlety"? (One: there are not people like that, and; two: if there are, I hate them and don't want to watch a movie about them because they're annoying.)
I can't tell if the inclusion of a (magical negro) black parole officer is a cynical commentary here about how white people have it really easy in our world and how when they screw up (dumbly) they can get back on their feet. I don't think the film is that deep or that that criticism is really here, but that point is suggested. There is basically nothing different between Ned and, say, Gator from Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (a druggie who constantly gets into trouble with family and the law) other than their race, the state's treatment of that race and the drug of choice. Of course, Gator is a tragic figure (in a classical sense) and Ned is a lovable everyman (because he's white and the people who will see this movie are white).
The supporting cast of the film is actually solid, with Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott and Steve Coogan (I don't really like Elizabeth Banks, who's doing her best impersonation of Parker Posey here, or Emily Mortimer, who's doing her best impersonation of an American here), though the script and dialogue are so terrible they might as well be doing bad college improv.
This movie is sweet, nice, happy and written to be funny (though I never laughed). It's just totally dull and frustrating. I think there's a nice germ of a film here. A loser brother helps his family by showing them how to be less callous. It's just the execution is so tedious, I can't even say I enjoyed it.
Stars: 1.5 of 4
Ned (oh, isn't that a wonderful name for a doofus!) (Paul Rudd) is a hippie who sells organic vegetables at farmers' markets in suburbia. He has a naïve sense of the world, one where he doesn't understand how people lie to move along and how those lies should be met with some level of skepticism on his part. One day he's arrested for selling pot to a uniformed policeman and goes to jail. When he gets out he moves in with each of his tree sisters in succession (all of whom live in New York City) for a spell.
He ends up changing their lives (at first for the worse, but ultimately for the better) by being wide-eyed and having no ability to keep his mouth shut. He doesn't understand that when his brother-in-law says he is shooting his documentary of a dancer in the nude to get closer to his subject, that he's actually is lying to cover up the affair he's having. He reports this tidbit ("Did you know he shoots the documentary in the nude?") but doesn't realize that it's effectively going to end his sister's marriage (probably for the best, of course). He changes everyone's life, but not on purpose. He stumbles into being a good person, but is really just a loser all along.
Rudd is good, but the character he plays is really annoying. There's only so much stupidity I can tolerate as "he's just a well-meaning guy" before I want to take him by the shoulders and shake him to get him to realize he's being dumb. Are we really supposed to think he's just this aloof because he smokes a lot of drugs? Is there something here that "some people are just free-spirits and don't understand subtlety"? (One: there are not people like that, and; two: if there are, I hate them and don't want to watch a movie about them because they're annoying.)
I can't tell if the inclusion of a (magical negro) black parole officer is a cynical commentary here about how white people have it really easy in our world and how when they screw up (dumbly) they can get back on their feet. I don't think the film is that deep or that that criticism is really here, but that point is suggested. There is basically nothing different between Ned and, say, Gator from Spike Lee's Jungle Fever (a druggie who constantly gets into trouble with family and the law) other than their race, the state's treatment of that race and the drug of choice. Of course, Gator is a tragic figure (in a classical sense) and Ned is a lovable everyman (because he's white and the people who will see this movie are white).
The supporting cast of the film is actually solid, with Zooey Deschanel, Rashida Jones, Adam Scott and Steve Coogan (I don't really like Elizabeth Banks, who's doing her best impersonation of Parker Posey here, or Emily Mortimer, who's doing her best impersonation of an American here), though the script and dialogue are so terrible they might as well be doing bad college improv.
This movie is sweet, nice, happy and written to be funny (though I never laughed). It's just totally dull and frustrating. I think there's a nice germ of a film here. A loser brother helps his family by showing them how to be less callous. It's just the execution is so tedious, I can't even say I enjoyed it.
Stars: 1.5 of 4
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