Our Idiot Brother is a complete deviation from your standard American comedy. How so? It doesn’t put people down in order to receive laughter, it’s not strung together with scatology, and its protagonist is a kind, caring, and honest person. To be quite candid, it’s pretty nice to see a leading character that isn’t a degenerate teacher (Bad Teacher), a pot-smoking 20-something (The Change-Up) or a boss whose practical mindset is to fire the fat and disabled people in his office (Horrible Bosses).

In this ho-hum, warmhearted comedy we follow Ned (Paul Rudd): an idealistic figure who always believes the best in people, putting his trust in them, and staying far and clear of ideas of cynicism and skepticism.

He is, in more ways than one, a modern day saint. The opening scene shows Ned working, selling vegetables, that is until a police officer comes up to him and asks for marijuana: Ned denies, but the cop persists and gives him the typical song and dance of “I’ve had a hard and long week”.

So what does Ned do? He helps the officer out. Sadly, the cop set him up – and now Ned, is heading to jail. You see that scene alone sums up Ned’s ethics and morals. He is perhaps naïve, but he’s a good person – whose only goal in life is to be happy, love unconditionally, and care for anyone who needs caring, help anyone who needs helping, and listen to anyone who needs listening.

Yep, Ned truly is a Saint. Pity he’s living in the harsh world of 2011.

Our Idiot Brother transpires, Ned gets out of jail, naturally due to good behavior and winning the award of “best inmate” four months running. I suppose the only question now is, where does he go?

Luckily for Ned, he has a family – one who is dysfunctional and often illogical, but at the very least, loving. Director Jesse Peretz did a fantastic job collaborating and bringing together this A-list cast. Ned’s three sisters include Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), an aspiring writing hoping to land her newest piece in Vanity Fair, Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), an attractive lesbian who gets around to all sides of the playing field, and Liz (Emily Mortimer) the most responsible lady of the bunch who is married, has kids, and is quickly giving up on her own adulthood. To top things off, we have Ilene (Shirley Knight), the sincere and often wine consuming mother. What a family.

Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Emily Mortimer, and Zooey Deschanel star in "Our Idiot Brother"

What occurs once Ned renters the lives of his family members, is a bit on the predictable side, but never the less equal measures authentic and wacky. His compete and utter honesty is a double-edged throughout the film’s 90-minute duration. As Ned intertwines in and out of each sister’s lives, he disrupts and disturbs pretty much everything.

The typical hijinks ensue and the film sort of just comes and goes. It has some tender moments, yes – and compelling dramatic ones as well. Though, if the whole thing just feels a bit forgettable after about say, a couple hours, don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Never-the-less Our Idiot Brother should be admired at the very least for its outlook on life: simplistic and happy. It’s refreshing to see a character love so much, with so little animosity. For a second, Ned makes us even forget about the cruel world we’re living in. Sure, reality strikes as the credits roll down – but Peretz’ film is funny, charming, and engaging enough to give us, if even for a short while, some hope.

Bottom line: Our Idiot Brother is a very kind film, about a very kind man.

Rating:

Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Cast: Paul Rudd, Nick Sullivan, Francesca Papalia

Director: Jesse Peretz

Writer: David Schisgall, Evgenia Peretz

Runtime: 90 minutes

Genre: comedy

Trailer Our Idiot Brother

by CinemaRx