Surprisingly, I like Russell Brand. His slightly creepy, slightly sleezy, always-up-for-a-laugh screen persona has a charm that I didn’t quite trust to have long-term durability after his breakout performance in Forgetting Sarah Marshall. But watching him more than ably fill the shoes of one of Dudley Moore’s signature roles, in Arthur, I’m now a believer.
This update of the 1981 comedy about an obscenely wealthy man-boy who never grew up is much funnier than the original, which relied heavily for its laughs on the stumbling around of the often-drunk title character. The part is a perfect fit for Brand’s naughty-boy persona, and the movie is at its best when he’s allowed to ramble amusing asides and non sequiturs that sound like they’ve been pilfered from a stand-up routine.
The story is mostly unchanged. Thirty-something Arthur (Brand) lives a life of luxury without the burden of having to work, his needs attended to by loyal servant Hobson (Helen Mirren). When his public misbehavior causes problems for the family company, his mother threatens to disown him and cut off his income unless he marries Susan (Jennifer Garner), whom she believes can help rein him in. Arthur caves to the ultimatum, but soon after meets and falls in love with Naomi (Greta Gerwig). So he’s forced to choose between love and money.
This version keeps many of Arthur’s more unseemly qualities off-screen. For instance, we hear him mention that he’s used the services of prostitutes in the past, but we don’t actually see him pick up and sleep with a hooker, as in the original film. There’s also a softening of the woman who wins his heart — in the original, Arthur first sees her shoplifting at Bergdorf Goodman, here it’s while she’s leading a tour of Grand Central Terminal. I don’t know why it was thought necessary to remove some of these slightly rougher edges, but neither are they particularly missed. I only wish some of the gooey sentimental moments of Arthur’s transformation into a more mature human being had also been trimmed, as the last act drags (mostly due to less room devoted to snappy one-liners from Brand.)
It’s fun to watch Mirren’s very proper English matron indulge in such nonsense as wearing a Darth Vader mask. Garner and Gerwig both prove to be fine scene partners for Brand as well, but it’s really his star vehicle. And he doesn’t disappoint.
