Idiot Brother smarter, more serious than you'd think

Don’t be fooled by the advertisements and trailers, people. All that marketing is out there for is to mislead you and make you a sucker for something that isn’t what you’ve been told the truth about.

Case in point: Our Idiot Brother. With Paul Rudd playing Ned, a sweet simpleton who creates all kinds of mayhem in his sisters’ lives, you’d think that you were about to sit down for 90 minutes of Judd Apatow-inspired adult humour. You would be wrong.

Sure, Ned has his own special way of going placidly amid the noise and haste. Most of his happy-go-lucky attitude is based on how he just doesn’t know any better, but he’s a trusting soul and, whatever he does, trouble soon follows.

The movie starts with him working a rhubarb booth at a farmers’ market. He gets arrested for selling marijuana to a policeman in full uniform. Soon afterwards, his girlfriend Janet (Kathryn Hahn) dumps him and kicks him out of his own house, keeping their dog, Willie Nelson, despite Ned’s protests.

This leads Ned to seek shelter and lodging with any or all of his three sisters: Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) and Liz (Emily Mortimer). Each sibling has her own problems and struggles, all of which are systematically exposed by their hapless sibling. The whole focus of this movie isn’t really on the “idiot brother” part of the title. It’s on the word “our.” The three sisters think that he is floating on the waves of fate, but they are too, and with worse repercussions.

Miranda is a career journalist trying desperately to make a big break at a major magazine, but Ned is the only key to the story. She has trouble finding love, but Ned can help her with that, too.

Natalie struggles with her relationship to Cindy (Rashida Jones), especially when Ned innocently reveals a catastrophic secret.

Liz’s marriage to Dylan (Steve Coogan) is definitely on the rocks, even before Ned witnesses Dylan in an extramarital dalliance. For a time, Ned gets to be a kind of live-in nanny to their son, River (Matthew Mindler), a put-upon little boy who just wants to have a normal childhood despite his parents’ insistence that he learn obscure musical instruments and avoid television and violence. Ned instantly becomes the coolest uncle ever.

Ned, who explains that his philosophy on life is to trust people and give them the chance to rise up and do the right thing, ends up breathing new life into his fuddy-duddy family members’ lives.

So where this movie diverges from say You, Me and Dupree or Failure to Launch is exactly the same point where it converges more with the bittersweet family movies like The Family Stone. These movies usually have great casting of solid actors who really fill their roles with humanity and convincing performances. Rudd is usually a supporting character but you can’t imagine anyone else playing the lead here. This should be his breakout role to prove that he can handle the lead.

Don’t expect too many out-and-out laughs, although the real situations will likely make you snicker and snort, sputtering, “It’s funny because it’s true.”

Our Idiot Brother is a story about human failings and the foibles of family life. It’s more of a psychological relationship drama than a pure banal comedy and it’s all the better for it. There are a lot of rich lessons to be gained, just as long as you don’t expect it to be stupid.