Brother is truly idiotic

By Aaren Pastor     8/24/11 7:00pm

Paul Rudd, the king of lovable slackers, once again assumes his mantle of charming ineptness in the awkwardly titled end-of-summer flick Our Idiot Brother, from director Jesse Peretz. Peretz, who directed Rudd in The Chateau, teamed up with his scriptwriting sister Evgenia Peretz to create Brother. Though the title leaves much to be desired and conjures unsavory images of lewd sophomoric humor and, well, idiocy, the film actually reveals itself to be a bland yet sweet look at one bumbling brother's relationships with his three harried sisters. If it were a cookie, it would be shortbread: not spectacular, not detestable, just a middling bit of Hollywood escapism.

Rudd, originally of Clueless fame but known also for such caliber cinema as Dinner for Schmucks and Role Models, is Ned, the so-called dunce of the family and erstwhile organic farmer who moves in with his mother and each of his sisters after serving a four month prison sentence for selling pot to a uniformed police officer. If one is inclined toward plot lines, authenticity or higher intellectualism, steer clear of this film. Ned traverses his mother's home to those of his sisters, trying to garner enough cash and courage to return to the farm and rescue his beloved dog Willie Nelson. Kathryn Hahn is hilarious as his dreaded — literally and metaphorically — former girlfriend embodying the hypocritical hippie ethos as she seizes Ned's farm from under him, refuses to relinquish Willie Nelson, and otherwise behaves like a typically corrupted member of  the capitalistic society she rebels against.

 Liz (Emily Mortimer, Lars and the Real Girl), married to Dylan (Steve Coogan, Tropic Thunder), is a true lothario and cad, spends her time casting about teary eyes and a winsome voice of denial. Ned helps her realize Dylan's cheating ways and recognize that, although her son wants to take karate, he will not grow up to be a "frat boy rapist," as she assumes.

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Ned then moves on to Miranda (Elizabeth Banks, Zack and Miri Make a Porno), an aspiring writer for Vanity Fair, who apparently doesn't realize she's in love with her goofy, but adorable, neighbor Jeremy (Adam Scott, The Aviator), who spends the majority of his time with her.

Miranda uses Ned to gain information for an article, then is forced to deal with the consequences of her unethical actions. After adequately disrupting Miranda's life, Ned visits the token lesbian sister.  Natalie (Zooey Deschanel, 500 Days of Summer) the doe-eyed, dry witted, absent-minded and guilt free lover Deschanel so often plays, and Cindy (Rashida Jones, I Love You, Man) the menswear-loving girlfriend. The stereotyping is so blatant that it is offensive, but Jones manages to rescue the role somewhat, to her infinite credit. Mostly because she's a slightly sultry-voiced exotic cutie and, even though she's clad in a ridiculous madras shirt and bowtie, she still looks adorable.

As Ned upturns his siblings' lives and they blame him for the moral dilemmas and ethical quandaries he forces them to confront, the family comes to realize that maybe Ned is not the "retard" they all call him.  During a family game of charades, Ned snaps out of for a minute, losing his stoner cool and screams he just "wants to play a fucking game of charades and spend time with his family." The shrew sisters fall silent, and are shamed into the realization that Ned, though hopelessly naïve and far too trusting, is perhaps on to something and not so idiotic after all.

Therefore, with lessons learned and relationships mended, both Ned and Willie Nelson are free to open a candle-making shop and meet their soul mates in a hippie brunette and doggie Dolly Parton, respectively. Though simplistic, the film's close will leave you with a grin and an affectionate head shake. 

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