''Our Idiot Brother'' is a 2011 American
comedy-drama
Comedy drama, also known by the portmanteau ''dramedy'', is a genre of dramatic works that combines elements of comedy and drama. The modern, scripted-television examples tend to have more humorous bits than simple comic relief seen in a typical ...
film directed by
Jesse Peretz
Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968) is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band which for ...
and starring
Paul Rudd
Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in ...
,
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is known for playing Effie Trinket in ''The Hunger Games'' film series (2012–2015) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the ''Pitch Perfe ...
,
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel (; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She made her film debut in '' Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known for he ...
and
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer (born 6 October 1971) is a British-American actress. She began acting in stage productions and has since appeared in several film and television roles. In 2003, she won an Independent Spirit Award for her performance ...
. The script was written by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall based on Jesse and Evgenia Peretz's story, and tells the story of a dimwitted but idealistic and well-meaning man who intrudes and wreaks havoc in his three sisters' lives.
The film was co-produced by
Anthony Bregman,
Peter Saraf
Peter Saraf is an American film producer whose feature film credits include '' Adaptation'' (2002), '' Little Miss Sunshine'' (2006), ''Our Idiot Brother'' (2011), and ''The Kings of Summer'' (2013). In 2004, he co-founded the film production co ...
and
Marc Turtletaub
Marc Jay Turtletaub (born January 30, 1946) is an American film producer and former president and CEO of The Money Store.
Early life and education
Born in Lakewood, New Jersey, he grew up in Perth Amboy, New JerseyOrtner, Sherry, B''Not Hollyw ...
. It premiered at the 2011
Sundance Film Festival
The Sundance Film Festival (formerly Utah/US Film Festival, then US Film and Video Festival) is an annual film festival organized by the Sundance Institute. It is the largest independent film festival in the United States, with more than 46,66 ...
and was given
wide release In the American motion picture industry, a wide release (short for nationwide release) is a film playing at the same time at cinemas in most markets across the country. This is in contrast to the formerly common practice of a roadshow theatrical re ...
on August 26, 2011.
The film received mostly positive reviews, with critics praising the story and Rudd's performance, but criticizing the uneven script.
Plot
Ned Rochlin, a
biodynamic agriculture
Biodynamic agriculture is a form of alternative agriculture based on pseudo-scientific and esoteric concepts initially developed in 1924 by Rudolf Steiner (1861–1925). It was the first of the organic farming movements. It treats soil fertility, ...
farmer who is living with his girlfriend, Janet, gets arrested for selling
pot to a uniformed police officer.
Ned has three sisters: Miranda, a journalist hoping to get her first major article with ''
Vanity Fair'' and harboring feelings for her neighbor, Jeremy; Natalie, a hipster living with her girlfriend Cindy and other roommates; and Liz, a housewife married to Dylan, a documentary filmmaker who is inattentive; they strictly control their son River, unable to express himself or choose his activities, putting him in
interpretive dance
Interpretive dance is a family of modern dance styles that began around 1900 with Isadora Duncan. It used classical concert music but marked a departure from traditional concert dance. It seeks to translate human emotions, conditions, situations o ...
class when he longs to take
taw kwon do
Taw, tav, or taf is the twenty-second and last letter of the Semitic abjads, including Phoenician Tāw , Hebrew Tav , Aramaic Taw , Syriac Taw ܬ, and Arabic ت Tāʼ (22nd in abjadi order, 3rd in modern order). In Arabic, it is also gives ri ...
.)
Paroled, Ned discovers Janet has ditched him for mellow Billy, and no longer wishes him on the farm. Billy suggests he may be able to rent the goat barn out back. Initially staying at his mother's, Ned asks to stay with Liz. While he bunks in River's room, he is told to help with Dylan's documentary about Belarussian ballerina Tatiana.
One day, Ned is told to watch the car while Dylan interviews Tatiana. When a police officer asks him to move it, Ned runs upstairs for the keys and discovers Dylan naked with Tatiana. Dylan claims that he was only making her "comfortable". He is later kicked out of Liz's after River announces Ned's legal trouble at an important school admission interview.
Miranda reluctantly asks Ned to chauffeur while she interviews Lady Arabella, but is legally unable to pry into her scandalous past, while he charms Arabella. At her benefit dinner, she shares personal details of her life with him.
Staying with Miranda, Ned mentions Dylan's nude interview, and she deduces he is cheating on Liz. Realizing he has the details she needs about Arabella, she forces him to tell her. Ashamed, Ned returns to the farm; Janet does not let him rent the barn or leave with his dog, “
Willie Nelson
Willie Hugh Nelson (born April 29, 1933) is an American country musician. The critical success of the album ''Shotgun Willie'' (1973), combined with the critical and commercial success of ''Red Headed Stranger'' (1975) and '' Stardust'' (197 ...
”.
Ned has lunch with Jeremy, who explains that Miranda is too bossy for him. She is hurt when he mentions the conversation and reveals her thoughts on Jeremy, leading to a fight between them.
Miranda and Nat try to tell Liz about Dylan's affair, which leads to an argument about all their personal lives. Liz confronts Dylan, then divorces him.
Miranda takes Ned to verify the details of her article, but he won't sign a release as Arabella spoke to him privately. The company lawyer deems the article unpublishable, and Miranda kicks Ned out.
Ned attends a self-help meeting with Natalie. Her friend Christian is attracted to her but holds back as he knows of her lesbian relationship. When Ned tells him she is bisexual, he makes a move and they are intimate. Natalie later confides to Ned that she is pregnant.
Ned asks Cindy, a lawyer, how to get custody of Willie, and she suggests they just take him back. At that point, Ned is staying with Nat, who lies about having told her about Christian (and the pregnancy). As Cindy and Ned sneak onto the farm to retrieve his dog, when he mentions Nat's infidelity, she angrily calls her from inside the house. Janet catches them before they get Willie. Cindy, in midst of yelling at Nat over the phone, leaves without Ned.
Ned naively tells his parole officer, Omar, that he smoked marijuana recently. At the family dinner, Ned's sisters blame him for their troubles, driving Ned to angrily call them out for their selfishness. Omar arrives to reluctantly take Ned into custody. Although his family posts his bail, he opts to stay in to keep away from them. They go get Willie from Janet to cheer him up. Although she refuses, Billy freely gives them the dog. Reunited with his dog, Ned is motivated to leave prison.
A few weeks later, at lunch with Ned, his sisters all have improvements in their lives: Cindy plans to accompany Nat to her prenatal appointments; Miranda has started a relationship with Jeremy, and Liz is dating and letting River be himself. Ned and Billy have opened up a small homemade candle shop. When Ned finds Willie playing with another dog, her owner (Amy) says she's "
Dolly Parton
Dolly Rebecca Parton (born January 19, 1946) is an American singer-songwriter, actress, philanthropist, and businesswoman, known primarily for her work in country music. After achieving success as a songwriter for others, Parton made her album d ...
", he tells her his dog is "Willie Nelson", and they both smile.
Cast
Production
Development
The story was conceived by
Jesse Peretz
Jesse Peretz (born May 19, 1968) is an American film and television director, TV producer and former musician. He first rose to prominence as a bass guitarist and founding member of The Lemonheads, a Cambridge, Massachusetts-based band which for ...
and his sister Evgenia, who had written a screenplay together before but were unable to finance the project. They greatly enjoyed working together though, so they decided to draft another story, this time "a bit more commercial" and with characters in their 30s.
They planned to cast actors with whom Peretz was already friends, and created the main character with
Paul Rudd
Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in ...
in mind.
The script was written by Evgenia Peretz and her husband David Schisgall, and was completed by December 2009 under the original title of ''My Idiot Brother''.
Peretz brought the script to producer Anthony Bregman, with whom he had worked on the 2007 film ''
The Ex''. According to Bregman, "I was always looking for something to do with him
eretz
Eretz ( he, ארץ) is Hebrew for "land", "country" (with the definite article, HaAretz ( he, הארץ, "the land")
In particular, it may refer to:
* HaAretz HaMuvtahat, the "Promised Land"
* Eretz Israel, the Land of Israel
* '' Haaretz'', ori ...
and he came to me with this script. It was fantastic."
Bregman was familiar with producers Peter Saraf and Marc Turtletaub and had previously attempted to collaborate with the two. He sent them the script in April 2010 and Saraf said that he "loved it and was eager to work with both of them
regman and Peretz"
The film was co-financed by Bregman's
production company
A production company, production house, production studio, or a production team is a studio that creates works in the fields of performing arts, new media art, film, television, radio, comics, interactive arts, video games, websites, music, and ...
, "Likely Story" and Saraf and Turtletaub's company, "Big Beach",
with a budget of less than $10 million.
The project developed unusually rapidly for an
independent film
An independent film, independent movie, indie film, or indie movie is a feature film or short film that is produced outside the major film studio system, in addition to being produced and distributed by independent entertainment companies (or, i ...
; Bregman remarked in September 2010, "We worked on it for a few months and then it came together really quickly for the world of independent film.
..We will have a cut of the film less than a year after we saw this script."
Saraf said, "This movie will set a record for how quickly it came together: from the time I first read the script to the time we wrapped the shoot was four months."
Casting
Paul Rudd
Paul Stephen Rudd (born April 6, 1969) is an American actor. He studied theater at the University of Kansas and the American Academy of Dramatic Arts, before making his acting debut in 1991. He received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in ...
signed on to play the lead role even before Saraf and Turtletaub had picked up the film.
The principal cast was announced in early June, including the roles played by Rudd,
Elizabeth Banks
Elizabeth Banks (born Elizabeth Irene Mitchell; February 10, 1974) is an American actress and filmmaker. She is known for playing Effie Trinket in ''The Hunger Games'' film series (2012–2015) and Gail Abernathy-McKadden in the ''Pitch Perfe ...
,
Emily Mortimer
Emily Kathleen Anne Mortimer (born 6 October 1971) is a British-American actress. She began acting in stage productions and has since appeared in several film and television roles. In 2003, she won an Independent Spirit Award for her performance ...
,
Zooey Deschanel
Zooey Claire Deschanel (; born January 17, 1980) is an American actress, singer, and songwriter. She made her film debut in '' Mumford'' (1999) and had a supporting role in Cameron Crowe's film ''Almost Famous'' (2000). Deschanel is known for he ...
, and
Rashida Jones
Rashida Leah Jones (; born February 25, 1976) is an American actress.
Jones appeared as Louisa Fenn on the Fox drama series ''Boston Public'' (2000–2002), as Karen Filippelli on the NBC comedy series ''The Office'' (2006–2009; 2011), and as ...
. Additional cast members including
Hugh Dancy
Hugh Michael Horace Dancy (born 19 June 1975) is an English actor who rose to prominence for his role as the titular character in the television film adaptation of ''David Copperfield'' (2000) as well as for roles in feature films as Kurt Schmid ...
,
Kathryn Hahn
Kathryn Marie Hahn (born July 23, 1973) is an American actress and comedian. She began her career on television, starring as grief counselor Lily Lebowski in the NBC crime drama series ''Crossing Jordan'' (2001–2007). Hahn gained prominence ap ...
,
Shirley Knight
Shirley Knight Hopkins (July 5, 1936 – April 22, 2020) was an American actress who appeared in more than 50 feature films, television films, television series, and Broadway and Off-Broadway productions in her career, playing leading and charac ...
,
Janet Montgomery
Janet Ruth Montgomery (born 29 October 1985) is an English film and TV actress. She first gained attention for her role as Ames in the second season of the television series ''Human Target'' (2010–11), and also for her appearance in the 2009 ...
and
Steve Coogan
Stephen John Coogan (; born 14 October 1965) is an English actor, comedian, producer and screenwriter. He is most known for creating original characters such as Alan Partridge, a socially inept and politically incorrect media personality, which ...
were announced in late July.
Filming
Principal photography
Principal photography is the phase of producing a film or television show in which the bulk of shooting takes place, as distinct from the phases of pre-production and post-production.
Personnel
Besides the main film personnel, such as actor ...
began in July 2010 and took a total of 30 days
over a six-week span.
Filming took place in and around
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...
, with a 30% tax credit from the New York State Governor's Office for Motion Picture and Television Development.
Various locations were used in
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
and
Manhattan
Manhattan (), known regionally as the City, is the most densely populated and geographically smallest of the five boroughs of New York City. The borough is also coextensive with New York County, one of the original counties of the U.S. state ...
as well as
Upstate New York
Upstate New York is a geographic region consisting of the area of New York State that lies north and northwest of the New York City metropolitan area. Although the precise boundary is debated, Upstate New York excludes New York City and Long Is ...
;
specific locations included
Washington Heights,
Cold Spring, New York
Cold Spring is a village in the town of Philipstown in Putnam County, New York, United States. The population was 1,986 at the 2020 census. It borders the smaller village of Nelsonville and the hamlets of Garrison and North Highlands. The cen ...
,
The Hamptons
The Hamptons, part of the East End of Long Island, consist of the towns of Southampton and East Hampton, which together comprise the South Fork of Long Island, in Suffolk County, New York. The Hamptons are a popular seaside resort and one of ...
,
Hotel Chelsea
The Hotel Chelsea (also the Chelsea Hotel or the Chelsea) is a hotel in Manhattan, New York City, built between 1883 and 1885. The 250-unit hotel is located at 222 West 23rd Street, between Seventh and Eighth Avenues, in the neighborhood of Ch ...
and
Pete's Candy Store Pete's Candy Store is a New York City performing space, Bar (establishment), bar and nightclub, club located in the Williamsburg, Brooklyn, Williamsburg section of Brooklyn.
It is located at 709 Lorimer Street, between Frost Street and Richardson S ...
in
Williamsburg. Post production was completed in Big Beach's New York offices.
Reception
''Our Idiot Brother'' received positive reviews from critics. On
Rotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is an American review-aggregation website for film and television. The company was launched in August 1998 by three undergraduate students at the University of California, Berkeley: Senh Duong, Patrick Y. Lee, and Stephen Wang ...
it has an approval rating of 70% based on 143 reviews, with an average rating of 6.27/10. The site's critical consensus reads: "It's decidedly uneven, but like Paul Rudd's performance in the title role, ''Our Idiot Brother'' is too charming to resist." On
Metacritic
Metacritic is a website that review aggregator, aggregates reviews of films, TV shows, music albums, video games and formerly, books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted arithmetic mean, weighted average). M ...
the film has a score of 60 out of 100 based on 39 critics, indicating "mixed or average reviews". Audiences surveyed by
CinemaScore
CinemaScore is a market research firm based in Las Vegas. It surveys film audiences to rate their viewing experiences with letter grades, reports the results, and forecasts box office receipts based on the data.
Background
Ed Mintz founded Ci ...
gave the film a grade "C+" on a scale of A+ to F.
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert (; June 18, 1942 – April 4, 2013) was an American film critic, film historian, journalist, screenwriter, and author. He was a film critic for the ''Chicago Sun-Times'' from 1967 until his death in 2013. In 1975, Ebert beca ...
of the ''
Chicago Sun-Times
The ''Chicago Sun-Times'' is a daily newspaper published in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Since 2022, it is the flagship paper of Chicago Public Media, and has the second largest circulation among Chicago newspapers, after the ''Chicago T ...
'' gave the film 3 out of 4 stars, and wrote: "It's refreshing, this late in the summer, to find a hot weather comedy that doesn't hate its characters and embed them in scatology and sexual impossibilities."
Home media
''Our Idiot Brother'' was released on
DVD
The DVD (common abbreviation for Digital Video Disc or Digital Versatile Disc) is a digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 1995 and first released on November 1, 1996, in Japan. The medium can store any kin ...
and
Blu-ray Disc
The Blu-ray Disc (BD), often known simply as Blu-ray, is a Digital media, digital optical disc data storage format. It was invented and developed in 2005 and released on June 20, 2006 worldwide. It is designed to supersede the DVD format, and c ...
on November 29, 2011.
References
External links
*
*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Our Idiot Brother
2011 films
2011 comedy-drama films
2011 independent films
2011 LGBT-related films
American comedy-drama films
American films about cannabis
American independent films
American LGBT-related films
Big Beach (company) films
2010s English-language films
Female bisexuality in film
Films about drugs
Films about dysfunctional families
Films about siblings
Films directed by Jesse Peretz
Films set in New York (state)
Films shot in New York City
LGBT-related comedy-drama films
Stoner films
2010s American films