Our Idiot Brother

Our Idiot Brother is a bargain of a film. You don’t get just one film that centers on Paul Rudd’s adult-child stoner, Ned Rockliffe, but three additional films in which Ned causes chaos in sisters’ lives.

Ned is released from prison after serving time for selling a stash of marijuana to a policeman. Ned’s girlfriend, Janet (Kathryn Hahn), kicks him off their farm and keeps his dog, Willie Nelson. He ends up living back at home with his eccentric mother, Illene (Shirley Knight).

After he leaves his mom is when the story breaks itself down.

Film 1 - Ned stays with his sister, Liz (Emily Mortimer), at her place with her family that includes her husband, Dylan (Steve Coogan), an award-winning documentary filmmaker, and their son, River (Matthew Mindler). Emily forces Dylan to give Ned a job as an apprentice on his latest film focusing on a beautiful ballerina named Tatiana. Ned proves to be inept at the job. One day, Dylan makes Ned wait in the car outside while he’s filming inside Tatiana’s studio. Hours later, Ned goes inside only to discover Dylan nude with Tatiana. Dylan convinces Ned that this was part of the filming process which keeps him from telling Liz.

Film 2 - Ned stays with his sister, Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), after Liz kicks him out. Miranda has been given her first big assignment at Vanity Fair Magazine profiling the scandal plagued Lady Arabella (Janet Montgomery). Miranda takes Ned with her to the interview where Arabella ends up more interested in speaking with Ned than Miranda. Arabella ends up confiding in Ned about her recent troubles which Miranda uses for her own advantage. Miranda’s best friend, Jeremy (Adam Scott), becomes friendly with Ned and explains why he isn’t romantically interested in Miranda. Miranda in turn, has the same conversation with Ned about Jeremy. Ned ends up telling them both what they said about each other.

Film 3 - After Miranda kicks Ned out he moves in with his youngest sister, Natalie (Zooey Deschanel), and her girlfriend, Cindy (Rashida Jones). Natalie ends up getting pregnant by her friend, Christian (Hugh Dancy), and only tells Ned about it. On the night Ned and Cindy go out to the farm to get back Willie Nelson, he inadvertently tells her about the pregnancy. This causes Cindy to break up with Natalie and Ned ends up back home with his mother.

Rudd is very good at carrying the film. Ned can get under your skin especially with his gullibility, but he also has compassion for people and an unshakeable loyalty to his family that makes up for his faults.
Banks, Mortimer and Deschanel are all equally good in their individual roles. The problem is their roles are written like caricatures rather than characters. Jones has a hilarious scene with Rudd where she plots with him to get Willie Nelson back, but her scenes with Deschanel lack the chemistry needed to make their relationship convincing. Coogan is so scummy that you start counting down to the moment where Natalie gets some backbone and leaves him. Dancy just disappears and it’s a wonder if the filmmakers actually remembered if his character existed. McKay just phones in the same geeky doormat that he plays on the far better Parks and Recreation on NBC.

Screenwriters Evgenia and Jesse Peretz try too hard to squeeze too many story lines together in a short period of time. It results in Swiss-Cheese storytelling which leaves plot holes such as what happened after Liz and Dylan took River for his interview at an ultra-exclusive zoo. Did Natalie ever tell Christian about the baby? Even Jesse Peretz’s directions feel as if he squeezed scenes together rather then establishing any sort of narrative.

Our Idiot Brother reminded me of films such as Cyrus and Greenberg which also featured big name actors returning to their independent film roots. Idiot, just like those films, is a good showcase for its star, but lacks focus when it comes to its other characters and plots.

Idiot was a surprise hit this past summer, but I could only guess that was because it was the closest that moviegoers could see three films for the price of one.

Then again, if one film satisfies, why would you need more?