Our Idiot Brother review

Our Idiot Brother - Ned (Paul Rudd) is a stoner idealist. Due to a predictable albeit funny mistake on his part, Ned goes to jail. When he gets out, his girlfriend kicks him out of their house. Ned then relies on the charity of his mother and three sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Mortimer) and Ned accidentally exposes hidden truths about their lives.

This movie was a hidden gem! Didn't think much of the trailer for it, didn't intend to see it, but this movie is delightful. Ned is easily the best role Paul Rudd has played since his Anchorman role Brian Fantana, and Our Idiot Brother is his best film since Role Models. Too often Paul Rudd is cast as the snide straight man, while others like Steve Carrell play the goofball, but it's not my favorite role Paul gets to play. His handsomeness is what I think is to blame concerning Hollywood's typically unimaginative casting. Here, as Ned, Paul gets to (literally) let his hair down and approaches his role without cliche or self-awareness. It's genuine and sweet without being cloying. He's the perfect idealist, aware of himself and steadfast in his views regardless of the trouble they might lead to. What could be more annoying to a family of harpies and people caught in self denial?

Elizabeth Banks gets to play a bitch, and Zooey Deschanel plays someone who isn't ridiculously kooky. Steve Coogan, alas, still plays a snide bastard, but he does so with restraint.

I'm not crazy about the title as Ned isn't an idiot, and I feel it was a bad choice and may end up attracting the wrong people to the film and disappointing them. It's not a goofy slapstick film or a stoner comedy (though there are moments) and there aren't any lowest common denominator jokes. The title is the main misstep the movie makes. The laughs come often and the hippies "fighting" is hysterical. There is not a situation that feels cartoonish or unrealistic. Ned is someone I'd genuinely like to know. The world would probably be better off if more people followed in his....crocks. Okay, he's not perfect, and neither is the film. But the cracks are so small I would need a microscope to find them. I would gladly see this film again (probably on DVD) and it was a nice way to end the summer.

Our Idiot Brother gets a A-