Our Idiot Brother

Director: Jesse Peretz
Writers: Evgenia Peretz, David Schisgall, Jesse Peretz
Starring: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, Zooey Deschanel
Release Date: August 26, 2011
Length: 1 hour 30 minutes

        This year’s feel-good funny Paul Rudd movie is Our Idiot Brother, a sweet but sad tale of a good-hearted idiot, who manages to screw up everything in his life and his three sisters' by being his true self.

        After staying in prison for eight months, for selling marijuana to a cop, Ned (Rudd) comes back to his house, which is also the farm where he works. He finds his hippie girlfriend of three years, Janet (Kathryn Hahn) with another guy. Janet kicks him out and also takes his beloved dog, Willie Nelson, so Ned is forced to find refuge at his sister Liz (Emily Mortimer)’s house. Liz has two kids and is married to a rich British Documentary filmmaker, Dylan (Steve Coogan), who annoyingly doesn’t find her the least bit attractive anymore. Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) is Ned’s second sister, a high maintenance journalist working for Vanity Fair, who has an odd friendship with her neighbour Jeremy (Adam Scott). His third sister is Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), a bisexual terrible wannabe comedian, in a relationship with Cindy (Rashida Jones), a hipster lawyer. Although the family gets along pretty well, Ned’s naïve personality screws him over when all his sisters start seriously hating him for opening his mouth and not immediately realizing his fault in it.

        It’s hard not to love Rudd in every role he plays not just for his comedic skills, but there’s something about him that just makes you want to hug him tightly and just smile. As creepy as that may seem, it is that lovability he puts into all his characters that evokes that feeling and it is also what keeps this film as enjoyable as it is. The plot of the film is often ridiculous and includes some clichés in the – spoiler - happy ending, but Rudd’s portrayal as the immature sweetheart is too cute to resist. Rudd spearheads a hilarious script written by director Jesse Peretz, his sister Evgenia Peretz and her husband David Schisgall. With the opening scene being Rudd won over by a cop to sell him marijuana and then getting arrested for it, you are hooked from then on in. Rudd can only amplify the stupidity of the character so cleverly written to tell his parole officer about selling to a kid across the street, obviously mistaking a parole officer for some sort of therapist. The combination of Rudd’s comic talents and the uncontrollably funny script is enough to have you bowl over in laughter, which is the most rewarding aspect of Our Idiot Brother.

        As talented as Rudd is, an amazing cast of supporting actors accompanies him. Emily Mortimer is wonderful as the pitiful Liz, the unassuming naïve mother and wife, while Steve Coogan is funny as her apathetic unfaithful husband, Dylan. Elizabeth Banks is fantastic as the type-A Miranda who is hysterical in attempting to get information she needs for her first big article and Parks and Recreation’s Adam Scott is sardonically very funny as her neighbour Jeremy, she is attracted to. Finally Zooey Deschanel is adorable as the confused starting comedian Natalie whose immaturity ends up hurting her beloved girlfriend Cindy, played hilariously by Rashida Jones. Kathryn Hahn is also very funny as Ned’s ex, Janet and so is T.J. Miller from She’s Out Of My League as Janet’s new guy, who is even more of a chill hippie than her.

        The story was a bit all over the place sometimes, with crazy tragic things happening to these characters because of Ned, like finding out your husband is cheating on you or getting pregnant with someone else’s baby. All these occurences are used simply to get the sister’s angry at Ned, but they are never brought to the magnitude of what big deals these situations are and at end, they all get on fine. The script, going to extremes, to create drama was the only dislikable quality of this all around charming movie because every time Rudd popped up on screen you couldn’t help but feel like, aw, I can’t stay mad at you. Our Idiot Brother may not be Rudd’s best role or this summer’s best comedy, but with the endearing script and great performances, it certainly warms your heart like no other.