Russell Brand’s particular knack for playing hedonistic ladies men has a very specific sense of lackadaisical humor attached to it and not surprisingly it rubs some people the wrong way. As the nihilistic rocker Aldous Snow in Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Get Him to the Greek, Brand played the character as a swaggering, irresponsible lout who’s gained a little bit of wisdom from the emotional pain his poor decisions have wrought on his life. The pain gave the character a snippet of depth and it was enough to anchor the wacky shenanigans that would follow. With Arthur, Brand cuts out the depth and just goes overboard into an immature spiral of self-indulgent stunts that we’re supposed to forgive as he fights off a marriage he doesn’t want, realizes the importance of responsibility his nanny Hobson (Helen Mirren) has been trying to impart all his life, and win the heart of the girl (Greta Gerwig) that actually makes him happy. We’re supposed to forgive him because we see this growth, but it’s not enough to hide the fact that Arthur is just a series of gags strung together with a weak premise and the promise of Russell Brand’s wacky personality.
You could say that in remaking Arthur, the 1981 marginally memorable Dudley Moore comedy, Hollywood was scraping the bottom of the barrel or attempting to cash in on Russell Brand’s current seat in the public consciousness of comedy. How cynical you are. And you’d be right on both counts, because they haven’t chosen to remake Arthur because it has a brilliant premise, but because it’s a title that people might faintly remember seeing on rental shelves and its structure affords a writer the ability to write in as much off-the-wall comedy as they can to showcase Brand in another role of insanity. It’s just two counts of name recognition and a tailor made vehicle of zany bits where fans of Russell Brand can sit down and enjoy a film where they know exactly what they’re getting. Luckily, for anyone who isn’t a Brand fan, his co-stars Helen Mirren and Greta Gerwig give everyone else something to look forward to.
The two true stars of the film, if you qualify stars as the actors that actually do some acting, are Helen Mirren and Greta Gerwig who play their sidecar roles with grace and remind us just how talented the former is and how bright of a future the latter has. Mirren’s ability to flash between deadpan and deathly sober proves her handle of nuance even if she’s playing the straight man to Brand’s comic. Mirren does sardonic sublimely and without her the film would never work. Gerwig on the other hand dials back the sarcasm she’s becoming known for and delivers a genuinely sweet and touching portrayal of a girl with a dream thrust into a world she’s enamored by but doesn’t completely understand. Gerwig and Mirren are the true stars of Arthur. Jennifer Garner, the other top-billed actress alongside Mirren, does well enough considering she’s playing a caricature of a power-hungry career woman who has long since chosen personal success over romantic bliss. It’s not a bad performance, but compared to Mirren and Gerwig she’s definitely outdone.
Though a comedy and thus not typically of a genre resplendent with visually impressive displays, Arthur has a few set pieces and moments that give the Blu-ray presentation a little bit of purpose. His incredibly swanky pad, which is a child’s paradise of amusements, offers up a few decent moments of HD glory, but for the most part it’s not a film where quality is dependent on the visual or audio but on your enthusiasm for Brand’s personality. If you’re not a fan of that, frankly it won’t matter what format the film is in, getting through it will be a struggle either way.
Blu-ray Bonus Features
Just like the film itself, the extras are entirely devoted to letting Russell Brand off his leash and seeing what happens when he goes off-script. While it’s not nearly as side-splitting as the famous reels of footage captured of Robin Williams rambling on and on as he recorded for Genie in Aladdin, but fans of Brand should find the deleted scenes and the “Arthur Unsupervised” featurette a decent supplementary serving of the comedian. Oddly, the gag reel can barely be called that as the editing for it plays more like a promo reel for the film and maybe has like 5 or 6 outtakes in its entirety, with the rest of it just being flashbacks to moments in the film and lots of quick cuts showing nothing in particular. The combo package includes the film on Blu-ray, DVD, and as a digital copy.
"Arthur" is on sale July 15, 2011 and is rated PG13. Comedy. Directed by Jason Winer. Written by Peter Baynham. Starring Greta Gerwig, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Nick Nolte, Russell Brand.
