Our Idiot Brother [Blu-Ray]

According to Our Idiot Brother, all upwardly mobile urban professionals and artists are deeply unhappy and deluded, frequently lying to themselves and the people around them about their ambitions and relationships, which, of course, are all for show and calculated opportunism. And, really, all these people need is a little "perspective" on things so they too can be free, open and idealistic (and stoned), naturally trusting each other and presumably engaging in 40-minute discussions about the differences in toilet paper brands. It's patronizing, but when you watch the "Making of" supplement included with the Blu-Ray, where former Lemonhead Jesse Peretz talks about his vision for the film while sporting some seriously glazed over red eyes and a constant pasty grin, this ideology makes sense and almost comes off as sweet, in its own simplistic way. This message of "lightening up, man" comes with the introduction of the titular idiot brother, Ned (Paul Rudd), an organic farming pothead, into the lives of his type-A sisters, Miranda (Elizabeth Banks), Natalie (Zooey Deschanel) and Liz (Emily Mortimer), after he's arrested and paroled for selling weed to a police officer. Meaning well, he inadvertently messes up Miranda's journalism career, Liz's marriage (for show) and reveals Natalie's heterosexual infidelity to her girlfriend, Cindy (Rashida Jones). And while they're all angry initially, since their lives (or at least their performance of life) have been disrupted, they eventually learn and realize how much better things are when they're honest with themselves and those around them. As they figure this out, grotesquely simplifying the human condition, we get to look at Steve Coogan's taint and get a few laughs at Ned's expense, given his propensity for confessing drug usage to parole officers and feeling guilty for refusing homosexual advances. Even though the actual subtext of the film is awkward and misguided, the low-key comic sensibilities are bang-on, rarely going for the broad laugh. In fact, the entire movie is a series of amusing scenarios played with restraint, milking the awkward for all it's worth, like Deschanel's terrible attempts at stand-up comedy. As mentioned, there's a "Making of" included with the Blu-Ray, along with a very, um, detailed commentary track from Peretz.