Movie review in the Friday, Aug. 26 Oregonian....
"Our Idiot Brother" is a comedy so relaxed, it barely registers any laughs -- but it's enjoyable as an R-rated parable about what happens when an open-hearted hippie disrupts the lives of a bunch of privileged New York narcissists.
The hippie is Ned (Paul Rudd), a man so willing to put his trust in others that he'll sell pot to a uniformed police officer at a farmer's market if the cop asks nicely. This leads to a jail term for Ned and the loss of his sustainable-farming gig, his passive-aggressive dreadlocked girlfriend (Kathryn Hahn) and his dog "Willie Nelson." (This is the sort of laid-back comedy that thinks saying the dog's full name over and over constitutes a legitimate running gag.)
Suddenly homeless, Ned crashes the lives of his three sisters, who've carved out Gawker-post-worthy lives for themselves in the Big Apple. Zooey Deschanel is an alternative comedian cheating on her hipster lawyer girlfriend (Rashida Jones) with a sleazy painter (Hugh Dancy). Emily Mortimer is an overprotective Park Slope mom so fixated on getting her kid into the best schools that she doesn't notice the lovelessness of her marriage to a documentarian (Steve Coogan). And Elizabeth Banks is a Vanity Fair journalist who strings along her doormat neighbor (Adam Scott) while trying to advance her career by prying into a countess' private life.
The movie's satire of haute-bohemian New York is gentle but authentic-feeling -- co-writer Evgenia Peretz is an actual Vanity Fair journalist, married to a documentarian, and her brother Jesse Peretz directs. Rudd finds a sweet nobility in his character, who's more naïve than idiotic; Ned's interactions with his ex's equally mellow replacement boyfriend (T.J. Miller) provide the film's funniest moments. "Our Idiot Brother" lives in a sort of relaxed in-between place where it doesn't really bite as drama or comedy, but the movie's world-class cast and big heart push it over.
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(90 min., rated R) Grade: C-plus
'Our Idiot Brother' (The Oregonian, Friday, Aug. 26, 2011)
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