Our Idiot Brother.
Regal Union Square, August 30, 2011
Movie #66 for 2011
I can imagine being more disappointed by this film, but honestly? It’s a stretch.
EMILY MORTIMER, ELIZABETH BANKS and ZOOEY DESCHANEL (pictured, left to right) play the sisters of PAUL RUDD, a biodynamic farmer and free spirit who is jailed for selling pot to a (uniformed) policeman. When he’s released, his girlfriend has kicked him off the farm and out of the bed and so he turns to his family for support and a place to crash. They are reluctant.
A premise like this could either play as broad comedy or with a dramatic backbone. Sadly, I’m not sure anyone involved knew what they were pitching for, so the film ends up in a dramatic, emotional and comedic nowhere.
The writing and direction have almost no energy and, despite the rich premise, there is very little story to speak of. The cast do what they can with their unsympathetic caricatures, but if I’d never seen them in anything else, I’d think they were talentless and dull. What a waste of a fine cast and a script chock-a-block with potential for female character development.
There are one or two episodes and peripheral characters that are briefly interesting, but really, I can’t imagine being more disappointed in a premise and lineup that promised so much.
