Paul Rudd is hardly an idiot. He’s a sly combination of leading man and comic goofball, but there’s nothing Rudd can do to salvage the 2011 comedy “Our Idiot Brother.” The film surrounds Rudd with comedy heavy hitters who take turns striking out for 90-odd minutes.

“Brother,” available this week on home video, tees up a story laden with comic potential. A lovable slacker (Rudd) imposes himself on his three dysfunctional sisters, all of whom could learn to embrace life as their ne’er do well brother does.

The film doesn’t play the “Idiot” card for all its worth, nor do we get the kind of droll humor indie films so often supply. Instead, it’s a predictable yarn that all but abandons both its star and terrific supporting players.

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“Our Idiot Brother” lives down to its title. The new comedy tells the story of a dysfunctional family dealing with their pot-smoking sibling, who stumbles through life thinking everyone should be as brutally honest and carefree as he is. Paul Rudd, who was great in 2009’s “I Love You, Man,” is completely wasted in this new film that may be one of the worst of 2011.

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Early on in “Brother,” Ned (Rudd) is arrested for selling marijuana to a police officer. The police officer is fully-uniformed and openly asks Ned about buying the illegal drug. I’m not sure why a police officer would try to sell drugs to someone while wearing his uniform but this officer believes that Ned is stupid enough to sell him pot.

He’s right.

After being released from prison, Ned starts living with family members. His ex-girlfriend has broken up with him and stolen his dog so he has nowhere else to go. Of course, Ned is more upset about losing his dog than his girl. He eventually moves in with his mother but later moves in with each of his sisters as well, who each have their own homes. One of his sisters is a married Mom (Emily Mortimer). Another one is a lesbian (Zooey Deschanel) living with her girlfriend, and his third sister (Elizabeth Banks) is an aspiring journalist who lives with a male roommate. The sisters share little in common except for their love for their dimwitted brother. Ned eventually becomes involved in each of their personal lives causing friction in their relationships with loved ones. Ned is brutally honest and as with other movies of this type, his honesty helps create issues for the people he loves.

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The Academy Awards for 2008 have been handed out, and the “popular kids” have Oscars on their mantles, but the dirty little secret about winning awards is that you’ve gotta campaign for them. Thousands of dollars were spent by the distributors and filmmakers behind Slumdog Millionaire (Fox Searchlight), Milk (Focus Features), The Reader (Weinstein) and other assorted winners and nominees, but not all performances received that sort of big money backing.

I am an unabashed lover of the acting craft. I see virtually every movie, large and small, that passes through the US marketplace, and, taking nothing away from Sean Penn, Kate Winslet, Penelope Cruz and Heath Ledger, not all of 2008’s best performances have been recognized. I’m not going to be obvious here. Clint Eastwood was snubbed for Gran Torino, but he received lots of acclaim for the role including being named Best Actor by the National Board of Review. My goal is to highlight 10 performances from last year that have received virtually no acclaim in the US. Many of these roles can be found in hardly-seen, under-appreciated movies that came and went without much notice. Each and every one of these movies deserve a spot in your Netflix (or Blockbuster) cue. (more…)