Our Idiot Brother
Dir: Jesse Peretz
2011
****
Maybe it is because the film was poorly advertised and completely mis-sold that I found it a big surprise. I think it helped anyway but I really did like Our Idiot Brother quite a lot. It's not preachy and nor does it attempt any subliminal lessons (or obvious ones for the matter). I laughed quite a few times but the humour is generally subtle rather than laugh out loud obnoxious - something the kids need these days to describe anything as funny (or 'too funny' like that's possible). Paul Rudd goes easy on the ad-lib front which was a relief, I hope he looks back at this film from time to time to see that it isn't always necessary (and that he can't do it very well anyway). It's also slap-stick free, thank goodness. His character is probably one of the best he's played so far in his career, it's a real shame that this film seems to have been forgotten so soon after release. I can only imagine the Adam Sandler fans who thought this film was for them were disappointed while the non-Adam Sandler fans didn't see it. Go see it non-Adam Sandler fans!