'Brothers' a step up from the usual crass, adolescent comedy
Before I review "Step Brothers," the latest movie to come out of the Judd Apatow School of Painfully Poignant and Funny Crass Comedies, I must make an appeal to the studio marketing wizards who create those punchy little theatrical and Web trailers and TV commercials: Stop ruining the movies for us.
When Brennan Huff (Will Ferrell) hops into the bottom bunk bed and Dale Doback (John C. Reilly) climbs in on the top, we already know what happens, don't we? We saw it in the trailers.
When Dale and Brennan are confronted by a group of seemingly normal schoolchildren, we already know what happens there, too, don't we? Yep, saw it in the trailers.
Is it so hard to produce commercials and teasers without revealing every major plot turn and gutting all the major laugh moments?
As I watched "Step Brothers," I tried to imagine how much more fun it would have been to experience the physical gags and verbal jousts had I not known they were coming.
Despite this, "Step Brothers" still packs enough raw material to exploit infantile behavior for humorous effect. In fact, this comedy - from the makers of "Talladega Nights: The Legend of Ricky Bobby" and "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy" - celebrates the attitudes and mind sets of two 12-year-old boys stuck in the bodies of men rapidly approaching middle age. And they still live with their single parents.
When Brennan's mom Nancy (Mary Steenburgen) marries Dale's doctor dad Robert (Richard Jenkins), the two spoiled-brat sons take an instant hatred to each other. They goad each other with childish taunts, and try to provoke each other with outrageous antics. (A bawdy segment between Brennan's anatomy and Dale's drum set boasts the biggest testicular comedy quotient since the agonizing zipper scene from "There's Something About Mary.")
Brennan fancies himself a great singer, but he won't sing for anyone but his mom. Dale thinks of himself as a drumming talent, but lets his drums set idle most of the time. Their domestic war takes a twist after the arrival of Brennan's highly successful brother Derek (Adam Scott), a superficial, egomaniacal helicopter dealer who forces his kids to sing harmony with him and ridicules his wife Alice (comically gifted Westchester native Kathryn Hahn) for not being good enough.
Dale can't stand Derek and punches him in the face. Adopting an "enemy of my enemy is my friend" attitude, Brennan bonds with Dale and the two decide they can form their own company and be buddies for life.
Written by Ferrell and director Adam McKay, "Step Brothers" contains the expected level of scatological humor and comic pratfalls of the genre. But by making the protagonists of their adolescent comedy older guys, "Step Brothers" underscores the outrageous self-centeredness and abject lack of empathy for others that we take for granted in many teenagers.
McKay doesn't go for cheap shots, not all the time. "Step Brothers" humanizes Brennan and Dale as underdeveloped adults, not props in a dumb comedy. In a nice touch, Steenburgen and Jenkins suggest the guilt of failed parents as they try desperately to help their boys without sacrificing their own happiness.
Which brings us to the hard, cold truth of what "Step Brothers" is really about - not a gross comedy for kids, but a full-fledged, R-rated Dr. Phil movie.
This is a cautionary tale about parents who don't take proper charge of their children, and they grow up without ever really growing up."Step Brothers" asks the question: How's that workin' for ya?
"Step Brothers"
Rating:3 stars
Starring: Will Ferrell, John C. Reilly, Richard Jenkins, Mary Steenburgen
Directed by: Adam McKay
Other: A Columbia Pictures release. Rated R (language, sexual situations, bawdy comedy) 93 minutes.
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