Review: 'Our Idiot Brother'

Thank God for Paul Rudd. I’d be hard-pressed to think of another actor who could render the title character of this film so instantly charismatic and lovable. He makes a viewing of Our Idiot Brother more than worth the all-too-brief 90 minutes of this often hilarious comedy. 

If you’re expecting belly-laughs, look elsewhere. I’m not saying this is an intellectual drawing-room comedy, but the jokes are more likely to induce an ear-to-ear grin throughout the film than laugh out-loud guffaws. This is not at all a bad thing. 

American, or should I say “Hollywood” outings in the adult-comedy genre of late have become all too often exercises in vulgarity and almost pie-in-the-face sexual slapstick with little left to the imagination of the viewer. 

Jesse Peretz has directed the screenplay by Evgenia Pertez and David Schisgall with a knowing eye and enough wink-wink restraint to make Idiot a rare adult comedy in which the characters shine without reliance on the pervasive penchant for gross-out humor.

Paul Rudd’s Ned, a lovable neo-hippy is an innocent unlike any other character since the 1994's Forrest Gump. Ned might have a somewhat higher I.Q. but he shares Gump’s hapless, endearing love of truth at any cost. What he thinks, he says, often to the great embarrassment of others but never with malice. Ned thinks with his heart, not his brains, and Rudd brilliantly captures the charm of this “flaw” in every endearing gesture and facial expression.

Opening in upstate New York, the film follows Ned after being paroled from jail for selling a bag of weed to a Police officer—in uniform, to boot. His girlfriend, Janet, has pushed Ned aside for a dopier boyfriend (if that’s possible) and refuses to return his beloved dog aptly named “Willie Nelson.”

Kudos to the performance of Janet’s new boyfriend, played to guileless, laid-back perfection by T.J. Miller. Homeless, jobless and dog less, Ned travels to Brooklyn and takes turns living with his three sisters. As different from each other as sisters can be, Ned’s encounters with them illuminates the lies they have been living before his arrival to set things straight.

Most captivating is the relationship Ned develops with his sister Liz’ son River (Matthew Mindler), who is shielded from the evils of Karate and the Internet by his over-protective parents. The “idiot” of the film’s title is ironic as Ned becomes the catalyst for positive change and a spiritual birth with his sisters based on truth and acceptance.

Much of the remainder of the plot involves Ned’s attempts at coming to terms with living in a world with which he is clearly at odds, and it is to the credit of the entire cast, canines included, that they make it all convincing. Our hero is determined to face life with a shameless and unapologetic belief in the goodness of people, however they may try to convince him otherwise.

Veteran actress Shirly Knight shines in her all too brief appearance as the family matriarch, struggling as we all do, with finding in lives that are all too humanly fractured, the beauty that makes them whole and worth living. 

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Jeff Klayman is an award-winning playwright whose works have been produced in New York, Los Angeles and London. He also wrote the screenplay for the independent film 'Adios, Ernesto,' directed by Mervyn Willis.