Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Directed by: Jesse Peretz | 90 minutes | drama, comedy | Actors: Paul Rudd, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Steve Coogan, Kathryn Hahn, Bob Stephenson, Peter Hermann, Adam Scott, Kelly Briter, Rashida Jones, TJ Miller, Shirley Knight, Matthew Mindler, Sterling K. Brown, Hugh dancy

If you didn’t know any better, it’s not strange to think that Ned (Paul Rudd), lead actor in the comedy ‘Our Idiot Brother’, is slightly retarded. After all, who’s going to end up in jail for trying to sell drugs to a uniformed police officer? Understandable twice. For Ned, however, this is the most natural thing in the world, he simply does not think too much about the consequences of his simply remarkable actions. When he is released from prison after eight months and finds out that his girlfriend now has another, and what is perhaps even worse: she does not want to give up his dog Willie Nelson (named after the American country singer of the same name), Ned is left with little else than knocking on his three sisters’ doors for shelter.

Unsurprisingly, none of the three sisters (Liz, Miranda and Natalie) really cares about their bumbling brother. Because unlike Ned, they have built up a decent living. The eldest, Liz (Emily Mortimer), is married and the mother of a son. Miranda (Elizabeth Banks) tries to break through as a journalist and Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) is also happy with her friend Cindy (Rashida Jones). When Ned moves in with them, a slightly predictable yet entertaining comedy follows in which Ned (unconsciously) turns his sisters’ lives upside down.

While Ned’s sisters, although none of the three are really spectacular, have just enough character to remain interesting, it is Ned himself who wears ‘Our Idiot Brother’ despite his enormous rudeness. Because although he makes himself increasingly impossible in relation to his family, you see this differently as a viewer. There really isn’t an ounce of evil in his character, all he wants is to be happy with his great love Willie Nelson – who continues to run like a red thread through the film. Because of the cheerfulness that radiates from the beast when he is with Ned, you also grant him this. Ned’s clumsiness, although sometimes quite far-fetched, is more funny than disturbing. For example, Ned doesn’t look for anything when he catches his brother-in-law naked with another woman. After all, when his brother-in-law explains that he has a better click with the model during a photo shoot if he is also naked, this naturally sounds quite plausible. Welcome to the wonderful world of Ned.

‘Our Idiot Brother’ doesn’t really do that much and maybe that’s a good thing. There’s just enough humor in it to keep it funny from start to finish, and the film doesn’t lose itself in forced attempts to do more than it actually is. Towards the end the focus is a bit on the (cliché) importance of a strong family bond and this should not have been necessary. On the other hand, it does leave you with a fairly ‘feel good’ feeling to the film. ‘Our Idiot Brother’ is nothing more than a long sequence of scenes in which Ned rolls from one drama to the next. It doesn’t splash anywhere and the sparks don’t fly. Yet ‘Our Idiot Brother’ is a fine comedy that just looks good and there is nothing wrong with that from time to time.