Ed's Review Dot Com

The Weinstein Company, Big Beach Films, Likely Story,

Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Kathryn Hahn, Steve Coogan, Hugh Dancy, rashida Jones, Shirley Knight, T.J. Miller, Adam Scott, Janet Montgomery

Ned (Paul Rudd) is a clueless “organic” farmer who it appears has very little brains. While working at the farmer’s market, a uniformed policeman walks up to his booth looking to buy some marijuana. Paul recognizes that it’s important to help a brother out, and sells it to him only to find himself in the county jail. When he gets out, he has nowhere to go and nothing to do, so he ends up mooching off his three sisters, Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), Natalie, (Zooey Deschanel) and Liz (Emily Mortimer). One by one, he drives them nuts and ruins their lives! Ned had a dog named Willie Nelson whom his ex kept and refused to give back to him. The girls figure if he got Willie Nelson back, he would leave them alone, so they set out to get him back. But when he runs into a girl with a dog named Dolly Parton, he knew he’s going to be ok.

Our Idiot Brother is not a great film, but it’s it also not too bad. It’s got humor, without laugh out loud hysterical moments, and it’s got warmth without heart tugging moments. It just is. It’s better than many similar films, but it just is missing something that could push it over the top. Ned is not really an idiot, but his sisters think he is. He’s just one of those goodhearted guys who doesn’t seem to have the mechanism of restraint needed to stop him from revealing too much, or saying something completely inappropriate. As a result, in trying to be a good guy, he messes everything up. This is what makes the film work, because we care about the character Paul Rudd plays. So in that respect he plays it perfectly. He can make us like him while he’s being annoying without knowing he’s doing it. Likewise, the three sisters are really good as well. They are so uptight and into themselves that Ned drives them absolutely bonkers which is exactly what we want to happen to them. IT works on a bunch of levels, and is a pretty decent film. It’s not great, but good enough. I feel like this might do a bit better in DVD than it did in the theaters competing with all the other big films. This is definitely worth watching, if for no other reason than to enjoy the scenes with Zooey Deschanel. She’s great as always.

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