Our Idiot Brother (***)

If you can’t tell from the title—well, if you can’t tell from the title, you’re an idiot—this is another one in the epidemic of man-child comedies. One of the characters even calls Paul Rudd’s character, Ned, a man-child. That’d be after he’s gotten himself busted for offering pot to a cop. Not an undercover cop, either. There’s been so many of these that Rudd’s been in one at least three years running, only he was one of the grown-up types in Dinner for Schmucks and I Love You Man. (In 2007, however, he was another idiot in Role Models.)

What’s different about this one? For one thing, the sibling focus. Ned’s sisters are played by Zooey Deschanel (the ambisexual comedian, partnered with Rashida Jones, who was Rudd’s fiancé in I Love You Man), Elizabeth Banks (the go-getter/aspiring journalist, whose dark hair reminding me of Parker Posey), and Emily Mortimer (the frumpy/sweet mom, partnered with Steve Coogan). Besides that, instead of being about the need to grow-up, the movie makes kind of a defense of the child within. Unlike so many of his boyish movie brethren, Ned’s not a self-absorbed slacker, but a people pleaser. His lack of guile makes him an unwitting catalyst for chaos. But he means well, so even when his sisters get angry with him, they can’t sustain it.

The same tone carries over to the movie itself. Some foul language and a few scenes with “adult sexual themes” earn the R rating, but really the comedy is much sweeter than its cousins in the Judd Apatow school, and a world away from those in the silly/sappy Adam Sandler school. (Appropriately for a story of family, the writers are a husband and wife, David Schisgall and Evgenia Peretz, and the director is Evgenia’s brother Jesse Peretz.) The laughs are small and medium size. Here’s one: Ned’s dog is called Willie Nelson. And, after a plot point involving the dog, Willie Nelson, the singer, comes on the soundtrack. Cute. It’s not a movie with big gags, but then again nothing falls flat. It’s actually a decent story of family dynamics that would be good to see with yours. Even the grown-ups.

IMDB link 

viewed at Ritz East and reviewed 8/31/2011