‘Our Idiot Brother’ not the smartest move after all
Our Idiot Brother tells the story of Ned (Paul Rudd), an idealistic man-child of a farmer who, after being duped into selling marijuana to the police, is sent to prison. Upon his release, he finds his girlfriend has dumped him, thrown him out of his house and even took his one true love: his dog, Willie Nelson.
With nowhere else to go, Ned is forced to move back in with his eccentric family. While initially happy to have their brother back, Ned’s sisters (played by Elizebeth Banks, Zoey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer) soon find out their brother’s fun-loving, idealistic antics have the tendency to bring out the worst in people.
It takes none other than Paul Rudd and his goofy Pearl Jam-esque beard, to truly show the audience just how corrupt and mean adults can sometimes be.
Our Idiot Brother can only be described as a comedy in the most generic sense of the word. A more appropriate genre definition, however, would be trendy. Although there were plenty of jokes and funny bits sprinkled into the film, for the most part, every punch line came off as being just a bit too modish and cool.
With Judd Apatow as the leader of this modern trend of comedy, Rudd and other former Apatow collaborators have successfully branched off and propagated the comedy world with this new brand of pop-culture coveting, goof-ball sympathizing, pot-smoking characters and story arches.
Our Idiot Brother is, in essence, a very hip and current movie that fits perfectly with this new mold of Apatow comedy. Even the situations and character traits dealt with in the movie concern hot-topic and artsy characteristics.
For example, it features Zoey Deschenel, who has become somewhat of an indie queen in recent years, as an aspiring stand-up comedian in a lesbian partnership with Rashida Jones, who has created a cult following of her own with her role on ‘Parks and Recreation.’
Both the actors and their relationship prove to be just a bit too socially self-reflexive. It is as if director Jesse Peretz knows he is making a socially-relevant comedy featuring some of the trendiest comedians in the field, and he want to make sure the audience knows it by hammering home the notion with every culturally critical joke.
At its core, however, Our Idiot Brother does offer the audience a positive message. Sometimes adults really do get caught up with their own successes that they occasionally do not look out for the people that truly matter in their lives.
Rudd successfully creates a persona that at once comes off as being ‘idiotic’ (for lack of a better word), but also knowledgeable and wise. He, in the end, is able to bring salvation to his dysfunctional family. His at-first empty minded yet resonant remarks really do leave the audience smiling at the end of the film. It is just unfortunate that the character has to make such unintentionally philosophical observations while wearing a designer sweater, skinny jeans and plastic clogs.
Rating: 2 stars our of 4