By Matthew Clyburn
Within just a few minutes of the start of Our Idiot Brother, it was hard to ignore the similarity in tone to 2006’s Little Miss Sunshine. In Sunshine, funnyman Steve Carrell is walking away from a botched suicide attempt; in Idiot Brother, funnyman Paul Rudd is walking away from prison after selling drugs to a uniformed police officer.
Both films begin with an embarrassing and darkly funny low point in the leads’ lives, but become a larger portrait of dysfunctional family living in modern society.
Rudd plays Ned, a “biodynamic” farmer whose recent release from prison leads to perpetual homelessness after his girlfriend-turned-landlord has decidedly moved on to another bearded pothead. Bouncing around from mom’s house on Long Island to the homes of his three sisters (Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer), Ned bemoans the loss of his dog, Willie Nelson, to his stubborn ex-girlfriend and tries to regain footing in today’s cruel world.
Ned’s approach to this cruel world is perhaps the most interesting thing about the film. Rudd’s character is a simple, kind-hearted, gentle person with a true heart of gold. His inability to grasp the complexity of everyone else’s lying and scheming becomes his tragic downfall, while a well-intentioned losing of his temper becomes the unlikely climax of our story.
When all was said and done, I wondered to myself how this film came to be widely released. It felt like a festival film, rather than a traditional stoner comedy. The acting was all-around superb and helped to convey the struggling family in great depth. But for all the star power (and Rudd’s reputation), the film was only rarely punctuated with laugh-out-loud moments. How could this be?
Well it turns out Our Idiot Brother actually is a festival film; it garnered much attention at Sundance and only came into wide release following the good showing there. That’s not to say that the film is not funny at all, quite the contrary in fact. I found myself laughing quite a bit, but not in a Hangover sort of way. In other words, if you don’t appreciate smart, dark comedy, then you will not enjoy this film.
The pacing was a little slow at times and painfully fast at others. It took a great while to arrive at some of the action, and the resolution at the end was rushed beyond comprehension. Conflict and drama that took nearly 90 minutes to unfold was resolved in less than four minutes. This really undermined the legitimacy of the complex world that was built up around Ned, by assuming such complexity could be disassembled so quickly.
Rudd gives an understated performance that is, in a way, irresistible. Banks, Deschanel, and Mortimer were forced out of their comfort zones a bit and succeeded quite nicely. I’m especially becoming a fan of Deschanel and look forward to her future endeavors as she expands the characters she is able to play convincingly. Rashida Jones (The Office, Parks and Recreation, The Social Network) plays Deschanel’s quiet lesbian lover, and hits the nail on the head.
All in all, Our Idiot Brother is a worthwhile viewing for people that enjoy dark comedies in the vein of Little Miss Sunshine. The average college student would do well to avoid the film if they prefer Rudd’s raunchier comedies; pick up I Love You, Man instead and wait for This Is Forty (Knocked Up spin-off) to hit theaters next year.
