Review of Arthur (2011) by Haze H — 26 Jan 2012

First off, while Russell Brand is no Dudley Moore, I felt that Moore's performance in the original bordered on obnoxious a little too much. Brand follows suit, but doesn't quite have Moore's innate charm. As annoying as he was Moore was still someone to root for.

And also like the original, the real hero of the movie is Hobson. Mirren can't match Gielgud's brilliant portrayal of Arthur's surrogate parent, but she does a good job trying and comes away with the movie's biggest laughs.

Also, Greta Gerwig is charming as the girl who really wins Arthur's heart. Seriously, she is wonderfully great, but almost to the point where you start to wonder why in the world she's fallen for Arthur (it's incredibly easy to see why Arthur would fall for her). In the original movie, Liza Minnelli was slightly less crazy than Moore - he's immediately smitten with her because she shoplifts. Here, Gerwig, as written, is too perfect - the screenwriters soften her immediately by turning shoplifting into running an illegal tour group. It's actually a testament to Gerwig, that she takes a paper thin character and injects her with so much warmth.

But in the end, it all kind of works in its own weird way.