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Title: Our Idiot Brother (2011)
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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Paul Rudd | ... | Ned | |
| Nick Sullivan | ... | Customer | |
 |
Francesca Papalia | ... | Sadie |
| Bob Stephenson | ... | Officer Washburn | |
| Elizabeth Banks | ... | Miranda | |
| Peter Hermann | ... | Terry | |
| Adam Scott | ... | Jeremy | |
| Kelly Briter | ... | Girl with Jeremy | |
| Rashida Jones | ... | Cindy | |
| Zooey Deschanel | ... | Natalie | |
| Emily Mortimer | ... | Liz | |
| Steve Coogan | ... | Dylan | |
| Kathryn Hahn | ... | Janet | |
| T.J. Miller | ... | Billy | |
| Shirley Knight | ... | Ilene | |
Ned lived a happy life growing organic vegetables on a farm with his hippie girlfriend and his dog named Willie Nelson, but an unadvised incident with marijuana at a farmer's market lands him in jail. When he gets out of jail, he is off to live with his sisters. While Ned is still happy, his sisters are much less so after his honest, but unworldly manner contributes to revelations which manage to expose infidelity in one marriage, potentially illegal actions in one job opportunity, dishonesty in one budding relationship and morally unpleasant behaviour in one domestic partnership. He sees those problems as breakdowns in communication, but his sisters see him as an idiot. The truth the audience witness is that ultimately, Ned is a catalyst for good around him without consciously setting out to do so. The denouement of the film sees balance restored with a positive outcome for all in the family. Written by napierslogs
Our Idiot Brother (2011)
A pitch perfect, silly, touching comedy. Maybe we all know someone like the main character, the idiot brother, Ned, who is the ultimate optimist. He's also utterly (or seemingly) blind to the consequences of his honesty.
Which is the whole point of the movie—the world is full of little or large glosses, lies, and shams. Many of them seem insignificant, but when Ned exposes these glitches in other people's realities, the problems make clear the lies are not innocent.
But of course what his family, three sisters and a mom, see is one betrayal and stupidity after another. And while it might seem annoying or too low budget at first, it grows on you until you see the point of the inane script and regular people trapped and betrayed.
The center of the cast, Paul Rudd, was not familiar to me by name, but that's because he's been in lots of dumb, male-centric comedies. Great ones, I suppose, if you like that kind of thing. But the three sisters are all substantial actresses with a range of experience, and they in fact support him beautifully. You wouldn't call this an ensemble film—it's too loose and sloppy for that—but it ends up being a group effort. I especially like Emily Mortimer and Zooey Deschanel, and they're worth every minute here.
But it's Ned in the center, portraying, almost inhabiting, the pot-head idealistic harmless sweetheart with intuitive perfection. The plot gives him room to make his innocence shine in moment after moment. If you learn to like him, you'll like the movie.
The director, Jesse Peretz, has basically no other serious movies on his resume, just lots of t.v. But most of it is recent, and maybe he's hit his stride. Because this strange and often fairly straight forward comedy would not work without a sense of control and timing and editing to make it gel.
Never mind the naysayers. At least give this a try. It's comedy, and so it's not going to appeal to everyone. But it appealed very much to me.