Film Reviews

Arthur

• Rating:
• Director:
• Starring: Helen Mirren
• Details: US / 110mins (12A).

Despite a shift in tone and the odd gender swap, this remake of the Dudley Moore/Liza Minnelli 1981 comedy doesn't mess about too much with the original, which should please its fans. Although it is sometimes charming and occasionally amusing, this remake is largely a bland affair.
Arthur Bach (Brand) is a 30-year-old man-child with a serious drinking problem. Falling about New York and bedding a stream of women has been fun but mother Vivienne (Geraldine James) has put the kibosh on Arthur's antics. Fed up with him embarrassing the family, she gives him a choice: marry ambitious social climber Susan (Garner) or be cut off from her fortune. As bad luck would have it, Arthur runs into broke tour guide Naomi (Gerwig) and falls madly in love. What's an emotionally stunted alcoholic to do?
Modern Family director Jason Winer gives Arthur room to explore the real love story of the movie - the one between Arthur and nanny Hobson, a gender swap of John Gielgud, who won an Oscar for his role, for Helen Mirren, who won't. What Miner doesn't do is let Brand loose. Brand is an obvious casting decision but what has made Brand work in the past (that is of course depending on if you think Brand's comedy works) is letting him go off script and come up with his own take on the lines. Here Brand seems to stick close to what's on paper and it's a watered down (pun intended) version of the comedian.
What is troublesome with the original and this remake is that Arthur's predicament, if you can call it that, is that he has a choice between true love and being stinking rich. And let's not forget that he is given a choice. Not a dilemma you can get behind easily. What isn't helping is that Jennifer Garner is playing a completely unlikeable person; making her character likeable and thus confusing the situation even more could have been a goer but this is a no-risk comedy. There is a point to Garner's Susan, however, but the same can't be said about her onscreen father Nick Nolte and Luis Guzman, who has nothing to do as Arthur's chauffeur. With all the madcap shenanigans happening around her Gerwig glides through the events unperturbed, looking like she's in a different movie to the rest of the cast. The burgeoning romance between Gerwig and Brand doesn't get out of first gear, however, despite a grandiose date scene in Grand Central Station.
It does have a few jokes and there is the odd chuckle to be had (Helen Mirren wearing Darth Vader's helmet is sadly not one of them) but there just aren't enough for a comedy. It's pleasant and amiable and inoffensive but it's just not particularly funny.

Review by Gavin Burke