The Brothers Solomon

[StevePulaski]

The Brothers Solomon (2007)
Directed by: Bob Odenkirk

The brothers Solomon in The Brothers Solomon.

Rating: ★

There is an audience who will find The Brothers Solomon uproariously funny and an underappreciated comedy gem. They will regard its humor as indescribable, zealous wit that the masses are too jaded and uptight to get. I wish them well and a positive viewing whether they're on their first or second view of the film or even their tenth or their eleventh.

But I'm not gonna sit here and pretend to be a part of the aforementioned group. Bob Odenkirk has effectively made one of the most intolerable comedies I have seen in years. An ode to the odious qualities of comedic filmmaking, and a depressingly long, boring excursion I wouldn't wish on the guy responsible for my misery. It concerns the two brothers in the title, John (Will Arnett) and Dean (Will Forte), two socially inept losers who believe that getting a random girl (Kristen Wiig) to have to their baby will bring their father out of a coma, which he has been in for a lengthy amount of time.

Stop right there and take them premise in. Reread the statement again, if you feel so inclined. Here is a film so desperate for an idea that it resorts to an idea so incredibly strained and embarrassingly thoughtless; Beavis and Butthead would know better than these two imbeciles.

But the premise is just a fraction of what is deeply wrong with The Brothers Solomon from the get-go, which is the film is so desperate for a laugh that it becomes impossible for many of us to laugh under the given scenario and line of events that take place. It becomes an endurance test to see who could say the damnedest line and do the damnedest of things in hopes the audience will play along and laugh at its humor it justifies as "absurdist" or maybe "eclectic." Some may laugh at the humor and that is fine; we each possess our own different idea of what is funny and what is not - it is one of the most subjective things in the world. I just don't want to sit down and watch this with you if you do find this funny.

Comedies like these are the equivalent of unwanted guests in your home. You can't articulate quite why they bug you, but they seem so hung-up on the idea of alienating, belittling, teasing, and frustrating you that you're trying to simultaneously juggle forced-niceness while nudging them out the door. The material here is crass without ever really coming close to being funny or amusing, and watching talented people like Forte, Arnett, and Wiig squander their likability for redundant sight-gags and stupefyingly unfunny sequences is hardly a good time.

The Brothers Solomon is another entry in the genre of films with characters seemingly too stupid to function in the real-world. This kind of behavior can occasionally bring some wit and timing to the table, if directed and guided by someone with such talents (again, Mike Judge worked wonders with Beavis and Butthead on this idea alone). The Brothers Solomon has nothing of the sorts; it's one long, crude gag stretched far beyond its limits and is completely intolerable after twenty minutes. It's then we realize we have another long, relentless seventy-three minutes to go.

Starring: Will Arnett, Will Forte, and Kristen Wiig. Directed by: Bob Odenkirk.