What’s the point of remaking a movie only 30 years old? It’s not as if times have changed so much in three decades that today’s audience couldn’t understand yesterday’s film. Especially when it’s a movie that uses the time-honored subject of a man forced to choose between love and money. Clearly, there was no reason to remake the 1981 Dudley Moore film “Arthur.” But, despite my best efforts to dismiss the new movie, I’m sort of glad someone did. The 2011 “Arthur” is obviously a vehicle for comedian Russell Brand — and he drives it with panache. No other actor could play the man-child so well, utterly believable as a spoiled heir taking full advantage of his privileges, yet hinting too that there are depths to this shallow man that make him deserve our attention for a couple hours.
| On screen |
| ‘Arthur’ |
| 3 out of 5 stars |
| Stars: Russell Brand, Helen Mirren |
| Director: Jason Winer |
| Rated: PG-13 for alcohol use throughout, sexual content, language and some drug references |
| Running time: 105 minutes |
Brand is Arthur Bach, heir to a $950 million fortune — if he marries Susan (Jennifer Garner). Only she, his mother believes, can tame the beast and run the company that’s been under Bach control for generations. Though she oozes sensuality, Arthur isn’t that interested in the social-climbing Susan. But he agrees to marry her because he can’t imagine life without the ability to rent out Grand Central Station for a few hours or drive a Batmobile that would have Christian Bale jealous.
Then he meets Naomi (Greta Gerwig). The tour guide is as much a free spirit as Arthur — though her feet are a little more firmly on the ground. She shows him a life he’s never known, one in which fulfillment comes from achievement, not an ATM. Arthur is too weak to embrace such a life. At least, that’s what everyone but his beloved nanny Hobson (Mirren) thinks.
This “Arthur” closely tracks the plot of the original, but it has a heart of its own. All play their stereotypes well — the oversexed career woman, the controlling mother. But the relationship between the Peter Pan and the woman charged with taking care of him has real chemistry. Mirren is a master at whatever she does, of course. Here she’s given a chance to make us laugh, something the usually glammed-up Brit doesn’t get to do. Now Brand has shown us he can carry a movie just as well as Dudley Moore. Next, let’s hope he does something as original as he is.
