Directed by Jason Winer, (2/5).
Russell Brand and Helen Mirren make for an intriguing pair to place in a film together. Given that one is famous for playing a drunk rock star and the other the Queen, I went into this film with some interest. Unfortunately they are given dull typecasts to play with in a sentimental romantic comedy, so it feels like a complete waste.
Brand plays Arthur, who is basically a watered-down version of his character in Get Him To The Greek (who was basically a watered down version of Russell Brand in real life, into sex, drugs and rock ‘n’ roll), with the bonus of being a billionaire who is still looked after by his nanny. He is faced with a miserable life in an arranged marriage with Susan (Jennifer Garner) when he meets Naomi (Greta Gerwig), the girl of his dreams.
The film gets a few things right. The beginning is promising, as Brand is able to be generally debauched and disrespectful to everyone around him, which generates a few laughs. But the moment Arthur meets Naomi, the humour is systematically replaced by romantic soul-searching. Brand is a lot more entertaining when he’s being an idiot than when he is learning important life-lessons, so the second half of the film isn’t much fun.
Although Brand is the centre of the action, Mirren is also quite good as Arthur’s nanny, Hobson. The chemistry between the two never quite takes off, which could be because Arthur is outrageous to the point of dominating all their exchanges, or simply because both the characters lack enough complexity to develop an interesting relationship.
That’s really the problem with the film as a whole; every character is strictly one-dimensional. Jennifer Garner’s bride-to-be is bad, her dad is scary, Arthur’s mother is cold and the key love interest, Naomi, is sweet and innocent (and admittedly pretty hot). Cue standard plot line: the bad guys lose and the good guys live happily ever after, but only when the male character has learned that he needs to grow up. The lack of originality isn’t quite offensive, but it is boring. If you pay money to see it, you’ll just be rewarding Hollywood for giving us a production-line romance.
Arthur
