Holy Fool

Our Idiot Brother: written by Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall; directed by Jesse Peretz; starring Paul Rudd (Ned), Elizabeth Banks (Miranda), Zooey Deschanel (Natalie), Emily Mortimer (Liz) and Rashida Jones (Cindy) (2011): Genial, whimsical, low-budget comedy follows genial Paul Rudd -- a hippie so nice and lacking guile that everyone, especially his sisters, thinks he's an idiot -- as he tries to get his dog Willie Nelson back from a former girlfriend while simultaneously screwing up the lives of everyone around him. Except that he actually fixes the lives of everyone around him. They just take awhile to realize it.

Very low-key, though it was marketed as being another Judd-Apatow-style yuck-fest, something it isn't. All the performances are strong, and I wouldn't have minded spending another half-hour with the characters. Recommended.