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| "Aw, can we keep him mom?" "No." |
Family. That one word conjures up some very good memories,
and probably some very bad ones. Memories of people that you have to love,
whether you like it or not. Our Idiot
Brother is a story about family: a highly dysfunctional family with more
drama than an episode of Gossip Girl,
but a family nonetheless.
Ned Rockland (Paul Rudd) is the
happiest guy around. He works on an organic farm with his girlfriend Janet and
his dog Willie Nelson. Ned has the childlike ability to see the good in every
person. If a stranger offered him candy, Ned would hop right in the van without
a second thought. Unfortunately, this gets Ned into trouble. When a uniformed
police officer informs Ned that he’s had a really hard week and he needs
something to help him deal with it, Ned eagerly offers him a baggy of
marijuana.
After being arrested for the sale of
narcotics and getting dumped by his girlfriend, Ned needs to get back on his
feet. He turns to his three sisters for help, but there’s some bad news;
they’re the ones who came up with the title of the movie. Miranda (Elizabeth
Banks), Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), and Liz (Emily Mortimer) don’t think highly
of Ned. In their minds, Ned is the dysfunctional one and they are the
functional ones. But as Ned moves in and blunders about in his sister’s lives,
he exposes the underlying problems in their seemingly perfect worlds.
Paul Rudd carries the entire movie.
Channeling his inner dude is working out for him. Lately he’s been playing
uptight guys who need to loosen up (Role
Models, I Love You Man), but in Our
Idiot Brother Rudd plays the relaxed version of yourself; the version that
can watch all the bad events on the news and still leave the house with a smile
on. Rudd has always been an everyman, the actor you can relate to, empathize
with, and root for. Ned Rockland is all that and more. Having a giant beard and
a smile in every scene certainly doesn’t hurt either.
His idiocy, gullibility and general
lack of what adults like to call “a filter” lend itself to some very funny
situations. Ned uses his parole officer as a personal psychiatrist,
accidentally telling him illegal things he’s done. While playing with Liz’s son
Ned kicks a door shut on his nephew’s fingers and he lets slip that Miranda and
her longtime friend totally look like a couple.
Our
Idiot Brother can be summed up by Ned’s creed for how he lives his life, “I
like to think that if you give people the benefit of the doubt, they’re going
to want to live up to it.” His family eventually comes around to his way of
thinking.
Our
Idiot Brother is a lot better than it should be. Its simplicity should be
boring but it allows the audience to see themselves in the characters. The
jokes come often and mostly revolve around the comedy of real life. Paul Rudd
gives his best performance yet. If his smile doesn’t get you, his inherent
charm will. This is a family member you won’t want to shut the door on.
3 out of 4
stars. –Christopher O’Connell Rated R for
sexual content including nudity and language throughout.
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