Our Idiot Brother (2011)

One of my all time favorites.

Great example of an old-fashioned, pure-at-heart escapist event movie that doesn't pretend to be anything that it's not and has boat loads of fun being its own ludicrous self.

This is a dark and sometimes deeply uncomfortable drama

Yes, absolutely, there is fun to be had, as well as many, many things to go boom, all amid an atmospheric urban jungle.

Our Idiot Brother just didn't work for me. It isn't as funny or dramatic as it thinks it is. It comes off flat and unsatisfying. Paul Rudd is charming, but his charm can't save this movie.

some of the cast are too good to be in this stupid movie. but since they only care about money and whore themselves to whatever project that comes serves them right. every character in this film is a piece of ****. yet it's like they are the norm and the only actual normal guy is called the idiot.if these are the normal people then we live in ****y times where everybody is a freak instead of a normal caring human being. this movie is not funny, and there's no pleasure in seeing these freaks interact with one and other. but they manage to push the gay agenda all too well. seems we can't watch a show or a movie these days without some gay or lesbian people rubbing it in our face. I don't know what you people think, but I cannot watch this garbage. the agenda doesn't work on me. it will never be normal or acceptable.

With having seen Paul Rudd recently star in David Gordon Green's Prince Avalanche,I was pleased to get told by a family friend that he had recently picked up another title starring Rudd,which led to me getting ready to find out how idiotic this brother could be.The plot:Released from jail after serving time for supplying a cop with marijuana,Ned Rochlin heads back to the farm,where he lives with his girlfriend Janet and their dog Willie Nelson. Receiving a slightly different reaction to the one he expected,Ned is told by Janet that a she now has a new boyfriend,and that he needs to get off her land.Meeting his family for the first time in months,Ned is disappointed to find each family member (his mum and 3 sisters called Miranda, Natalie and Liz) being unable to get on with each other.Pressing on her daughter Liz and her film maker husband Dylan,Ned's mum gets Liz & Dylan to grudgingly offer him a job of helping them around the house.Initially wanting to keep their "odd" brother out of their lives,Ned soon begins to completely change his sisters lives.View on the film:Giving the film a kooky indie vibe,the gorgeous trio of Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer & Zooey Deschanel each give splendid performances,with Banks showing a real relish in using Ned to get her first scoop,whilst Deschanel shows Natalie to be dazed over committing to a relationship,as Emily Mortimer gradually forces Liz out of her self-confined shell.Joining the gals,Steve Coogan gives an excellent slime-ball performance as Liz's husband Dylan.Countering Coogan's slimy performance,Paul Rudd brilliantly makes sure that Ned never becomes sappy,thanks to Rudd giving Ned a warm sincerity in improving his family members lives.Keeping away from giving the title a bad bone in its body,co-writer/ (along with Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall) director Jesse Peretz uses Ned naivety to give the film a sweet natured innocence which allow for the hilariously seedy & peculiar aspects of Ned's family members to really shine,as they each discover that Ned is far from an idiotic brother.

'Our Idiot Brother' reminds me of two other films involving a passive interloper who affects the lives of a group of siblings. They are the Spanish Academy Award winner for Best Foreign Film of 1994, 'Belle Epoque' and the 2001 Irish/English import, 'About Adam'. In both, a young Lothario is the catalyst for awakening the sexual impulses of various family members (in Belle Epoque, it's three sisters and in About Adam, it's three sisters and a brother).'Our Idiot Brother' is a variation on this theme. Ned Rochlin (Paul Rudd) is by no means a Lothario, but is definitely a passive interloper who acts as a catalyst, eventually transforming the lives of his three sisters, for the good. Ned, a latter day hippie, hardly represents the spirit of Bacchus (as in the other two films), but rather a type who inspires spontaneity. The best part of 'Our idiot Brother' is Paul Rudd, who plays the likable Ned and one finds him charming and offbeat (except maybe for moments when he acts like a complete fool, allowing himself to be conned by uniformed a police officer, who convinces naïve Ned to sell him some marijuana at a local market).Unfortunately, the women Ned plays off against throughout the film simply lack the charm of the film's protagonist. For starters, there's his girlfriend, Janet, who was living on a biodynamic farm at the time Ned is arrested, and when he returns, promptly shows him the door, having shacked up with another hippie type, who is just as goofy as Ned. What's worse is that Janet covets Ned's dog (whose name is 'Willie Nelson'). It's hard to like a humorless character like Janet, whose main characteristic is to be a foil to Ned, in her unrelenting pursuit of good old 'Willie'. Ned's sisters are no more likable than Ned's ex. Take for example, Liz (Emily Mortimer) who's married to Dylan, a pretty much repulsive documentary filmmaker, who Ned unwittingly exposes as a cheating philanderer. Before things break down between Liz and Dylan, Liz has trouble accepting Ned's exhortation that they treat her son River like a normal kid (the parents can't stomach Ned's promotion of 'violent' activities, such as martial arts instead of more 'cultured activities' like ballet dancing). Then there's another unpleasant sister, Miranda, a journalist, who uses Ned to obtain a gossipy personal story from a royal celebrity, who takes Ned under her wings, after she's drawn to his honesty. Ned won't betray the celebrity's confidence, and surly Miranda boots Ned out of her apartment. More unpleasantness: Cindy, the lesbian girlfriend of Ned's other sister, Natalie, who should be the most ethical of all the characters, since she's an attorney, concocts this sad plan to go with Ned, and steal his dog back from his ex-girlfriend. It gets even more unfunny, when Ned blurts out that Natalie has been having an affair with a man, much to the chagrin of Cindy, who had no idea that Natalie was bisexual.The 'dark moment' of the second Act (if there is a dark moment) is when Ned admits that he's been smoking marijuana again, to his parole officer, who's forced to arrest him. Ned doesn't want to be bailed out of jail until the sisters are able to find a way to procure Ned's beloved 'Willie Nelson', which they do, when Ned's ex-girlfriend's boyfriend, decides that giving Ned the dog, is the 'right thing to do'.Ned's good-naturedness finally pays off when Liz decides to start dating again, Miranda begins a relationship with a neighbor she was really meant for and Cindy supports Natalie, as she decides to have her baby. As for Ned, he starts a candle shop with his ex-wife's boyfriend and then meets a woman, who he instantly falls for (note that the woman's dog is named 'Dolly Parton'). Our Idiot Brother's denouement unfortunately is unearned. That's because we ultimately don't find the sisters' positive transformations engaging due to not feeling invested in them earlier. Instead, the film's scenarists needed to make them more nuanced, and certainly more sympathetic, despite their shortcomings. In that way, Ned's affability and trustworthiness, would not have gone for naught.