Our Idiot Brother

Paul Rudd stars as Ned - a hippie farmer sent to jail after being entrapped for selling marijuana to a uniformed police officer (yes, it is as stupid as it sounds, but works to establish who Ned is and how he views the world). Upon his release, Ned finds out his girlfriend, Janet (Kathryn Hahn) has found a new guy, barred him from returning to the farm, and stolen his dog (his dog Willie Nelson).

With nowhere else to turn, Ned stays with each of his sisters, only to upend their lives, but, also make them reconsider those lives and how to lead them (It's like a Hippie version of Highway to Heaven or Touched By An Angel).

Our Idiot Brother is being sold to audiences as a goofy comedy, but the movie you buy a ticket for is more of a mix between drama and comedy, which loses the comedy and the narrative too much towards the end.

Yes, director Jesse Peretz and writers Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall give the audience some funny moments, and Rudd makes Ned into a lovable, well meaning goofball as he finds trouble without trying. Plus, everyone will be laughing at how the guy is some sort of modern day Forrest Gump wandering from situation to situation somehow providing the right answers or influencing outcomes in the right way without trying.

However, Our Idiot Brother can also be a serious and touching look at the relationships between family members as Ned wanders into their lives and changes them. It just doesn't do so in an amazing way.

Our Idiot Brother has an amazing cast with Rudd, Rashida Jones, Zooey Deschanel, Elizabeth Banks and Emily Mortimer, but the script doesn't live up to the cast. The story rambles along from situation to situation, but never captivating the audience to hang on every moment. It's just OK.

Our Idiot Brother is rated R for sexual content including nudity, and for language.