Saturday, August 27, 2011

Our Idiot Brother

After doing a stint in jail for selling marijuana to a uniformed police officer, Ned is kicked out of his home on an organic farm by his girlfriend and goes to live in the city where he bounces around his three sister's homes, throwing a wrench in their everyday lives with his naivety and brutal honesty. "Our Idiot Brother" is a sweet natured and often very funny movie featuring an incredibly likable performance from Paul Rudd. He is surrounded by a cast of talented and very beautiful actresses, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, Emily Mortimer, Rashida Jones, Kathryn Hahn, and Shirley Knight, and given fine support by Adam Scott, T.J. Miller, and Steve Coogan, who I found particularly funny as Rudd's priggish and phony brother-in-law. I have been griping lately about the state of  Hollywood comedies, specifically R-rated ones. Here is an R-rated comedy that eschews raunch in favor of sweetness and subtle humor and the result is innumerably preferable to the shit slew of restricted comedies that preceded it this summer.