It's hard to know where to start with Our Idiot Brother.
I guess the obvious place is by saying how this film FUCKING RULES as a contemporary comedy with suprisingly dramatic and emotional undertones.
I found the film to be extremely well written, constructed and played out by it's actors, and for me, it managed to find a perfect balance of the two generic strains; between genuine and simple comedy, and the dramatic tensions and prejudices that threaten to disrupt a family unit.
This aspect of the film and how it approached it, really reminded me of Woody Allen's more decent, family focused works like Hannah and her Sisters, exploring some serious existential issues of life and relationships, whithout trivialising them and at the same time successfully creating a lighthearted narrative arch full of lovable characters who learn to love each other dispite their differences.
However cheesy that sounds, it's the way the film goes about that catharsis which deserves commendation and LOADS OF ENJOYMENT. The cheese factor could have been overwhelming and there are some slight whiffs emenating, but the idiot brother in question, Ned (Hollywood-nice-guy, Paul Rudd) manages to be so damn comfortable in this role that he carries it along without too many crippling doubts.
The film follows Ned as he is let out of prison and tries to get back to his relaxed old ways, living off the fat of the land with his best friend Willy Nelson. Unfortunately his baron-von-girlfriend doesn't want to take Ned back and has found someone else to order around. She even denies Ned his best friend Willy Nelson (who is a dog BTW) forcing Ned to become a sort of family nomad, flitting between his sisters abodes, gently fucking up their lives one by one.
Ned never means to fuck anything up of course, but his overly nice qualities end up being his downfall... One of the more notable loose lipped mistakes involves Ned ruining his oldest sisters marriage by catching her husband, Steve Coogan (who plays a massive bastard) in the act of adultery and blabbing about it... Oh Ned! You silly sausage!
The film does get quite dark and unnerving at some points when the seriousness and gravity of his mistakes threaten Ned's happy go-lucky attitude. Does Ned give a shit? No he doesn't, he has a shout and gets on with it. Kudos.
Ned's philosophy is to give people the benefit of the doubt. He thinks that more often than not, people will suprise you with their trustworthyness if you only give them a chance. This really shines through to me. Ned doesn't change his ways, he's not going to be what his uptight, narrow minded sisters want him to be. He's going to be Ned and they're going to love him and you'll love him too.
(N.B. Our Idiot Brother has no UK release date, WHY? They probably don't think we'll be able to handle it's immenseness)
9/10
Trailer:
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