‘Our Idiot Brother’

Director: Jesse Peretz

Starring: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel

3.5/5 popcorns

As comedies become increasingly over-reliant on flashy, high-concept premises, ‘Our Idiot Brother’ director Jesse Peretz has a novel idea: have Paul Rudd pack on twenty pounds, grow a shaggy beard and play the fool for 90 minutes.

 

Frequently starring alongside members of the ‘frat pack,’ a class of comedic superstars including Will Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn and Owen Wilson, Rudd has never had the freedom to exercise his full potential as a comedic actor in a leading role. Often pigeonholed as the lead straight man, Rudd finally gets to channel his infectious comic energy under the guidance of Peretz. He gives the comedian the leeway to let loose as the lovable loser with previously dormant charisma, and it’s the best performance of his career.

 

Ned (Rudd), a wayfarer and occasional farmer of legally ambiguous crops, is the idiot brother of Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) and Liz (Emily Mortimer), who all have promising careers and stable love lives. After he’s arrested for selling pot to a uniformed police officer, Ned returns to his farm to find that his girlfriend has found another man and, more importantly, has retained custody of Ned’s best companion, his dog, Willie Nelson. Dejected, Ned makes his way home to reconnect with his family.

Ned’s sisters are all very fond of him, but when Ned’s big mouth and constant lapses in judgment threaten to ruin their tenuous long-term relationships, Ned finds himself on the verge of rejection by the only people that have perpetually stood by him. Dead set on resolving the problems he caused between his sisters and their lovers and on retrieving Willie Nelson from the clutches of his scheming ex-girlfriend, Ned has an ideal opportunity to redeem himself and prove that while he might not be sharp as a sword, he’s certainly as sweet as can be.

 

The cohesive assembly of actresses surrounding Rudd bolsters the story mightily, rescuing what might have been an entirely one-dimensional comedy. Although the sisters — Banks, Deschanel and Mortimer — are brighter than their not-so-smart sibling, they noticeably share his heart.

However, this is Rudd’s movie and he doesn’t waste a single gesture or mannerism in what might be his meatiest role yet. Rudd keenly understands Ned’s simple motivations, portraying him less as a harmless imbecile and more like a symbol of gentle simplicity. Ned thoroughly enjoys his unexciting, unpretentious existence, reveling like a child in banal family gatherings and romps with his golden retriever. Rudd is never overzealous nor does he have any ulterior motives for the character; he is content to play the buffoon to perfection.

 

The film is neither funny enough nor sufficiently engrossing throughout to warrant inclusion among the year’s finest comedies. While Rudd and his sisters are always entertaining, none have the capacity to push the comedy — and the occasional drama — to the fantastic extremes that audiences pine for.

Despite the shortcomings, one of the great charms of ‘Our Idiot Brother’ is Peretz’s execution of the very elementary premise. The film isn’t the least bit ambitious. It does not aspire to be more than a fun and heartwarming comedy. By those meager but acceptable standards, it’s a rousing success.  

 

smlittma@syr.edu

Published on August 30, 2011 at 12:00 pm