Our Idiot Brother (2011)

Our Idiot Brother is a rarity in movies today. It is an R-rated comedy that rises above its content. It isn't hateful or snarky or excessively crass. It is just a good-hearted movie that seems just as disconnected from the reality of other modern comedies as its hero is from the cruelty of the world. Paul Rudd plays the titular idiot, Ned, who tries to give a cop some marijuana. After serving his prison term, he tries to find a home with his now ex-girlfriend, stays with his mother as long as he can stand it, and then is passed off one by one to each of his sisters, Elizabeth Banks, Zooey Deschanel, and Emily Mortimer. The reason he can't stay in one place too long is because he, without any intention, succeeds in "ruining" the lives of each relative. Also, his ex kept the dog named Willie Nelson, and Ned has just got to get him back.

Ned reminds me a lot of Jacques Tati's Mr. Hulot character, if Hulot had been American and a pseudo-hippie. In all of Hulot's movies, he would find himself caught in situations that were above his head. Mostly, he was just an old man wandering about clueless in a modern world of technology and bad manners that he didn't understand. But he would always try to do good, even if it always ended disastrously. Most people, particularly his relatives, couldn't stand him, while better minds found him delightful company. Ned is very much like all that. He is an idiot because he is so honest and sincere, while surrounded by people who are living phony lives. He does manage to screw everything up, but only in a way that turns out for the very best, per feel-good movie tradition. He does make a few good friends along the way, comprised mainly of people who have been around the nasty people a little too long. He becomes a very likable character, and since he is carrying the movie single-handed, he makes the movie likable.

I enjoyed Our Idiot Brother because it isn't often I get a chance to see a new comedy that is funny without being guiltily so. It is essentially the idiot movie of the summer, precisely because it doesn't fit in with the rest of them. It certainly would be nice if life worked out as well as this movie does. Although we certainly can't all be Neds, it would be cool if there were more of them.

8/10