Dated 'Arthur' turns out to be one dud-ly remake

Of all the movies from the early 1980s, Steve Gordon's rom-com “Arthur” would seem the least likely to justify a remake in 2011.

Yet, here it is, a dated dud of a movie eking by on the limited ingratiating charms of Russell Brand, stuck with the unenviable responsibility of rendering an irresponsibly insensitive character lovable.

In 1981, Dudley Moore played Arthur, an affectionately cheery, perpetually drunk New York zillionaire who does nothing but get into trouble, feed his adolescent appetites and throw money around as if it meant nothing to him, because it indeed meant nothing to him.

This Oscar-winning film (for John Gielgud and Christopher Cross' song “Arthur's Theme”) came out at the start of Reagan-era America, back when alcoholism could still be funny and squandering a fortune on nothing could be fantasy fulfillment.

Jason Winer's remake, adapted by Peter Baynham, doesn't change much of the basic story, but does err in replacing Arthur's male valet (a perfectly cast Gielgud) with a female nanny, Hobson (Helen Mirren, pushing her Oscar-winning talents to the max to keep from being engulfed by soggy material).

Brand's Arthur lives the life of a childish Hugh Hefner, except he doesn't publish anything or operate businesses. His mother Vivienne (Geraldine James) has had it with Arthur's embarrassing public behavior and scandals, because the stockholders of her megacompany worry what will happen should Arthur take over one day.

So, Mom dictates that Arthur will marry Susan (Jennifer Garner), a wealthy daughter of a self-made kajillionaire (Nick Nolte, practically texting his role in) so that she can control Arthur and keep the corporate ship steady.

On a jaunt through town, Arthur meets Naomi (Greta Gerwig), a cute rule-bender who leads tourists on unlicensed tours through Grand Central Station. (In the original, Liza Minnelli played the role as a shoplifter.)

Arthur becomes smitten with Naomi, setting in motion the expected tug-of-war between following his own working-class-empathetic heart or obeying his business-based mother's anti-romantic directive.

In 2011, we've become a little more sensitive about using inebriation as a cheap and easy source of laughs (at least I have, given that my younger brother died an alcoholic). The film's use of AA meetings, presumably to show us that addiction is indeed a serious issue, only underscores the limitations of addiction as comic fodder.

In our post-2008 economic climate, the premise of someone treating money as a frivolous annoyance rings sour.

It's a case of the subject matter being way behind its time.

Director Winer, a Northwestern University graduate and former member of Improv Olympic Theatre, doesn't attempt to replicate the original movie's replication of a 1930s screwball comedy.

That wouldn't work, either.

So, Winer is straddled with an ill-timed subject and the usually riotous Brand, who replaces Moore's infectious giddiness with a hyper-pitched exercise in sustained comic delivery.

Mirren gives Hobson all the empathy she can muster, but the supposedly emotional connection between Hobson and Arthur — arriving at a crucial development in the plot — comes off stiff and brittle.

When you get caught between the moon and New York City, the best that you can do should be much better than this.

<b>“Arthur”</b>

<b>1.5 stars</b>

<b>Starring:</b> Russell Brand, Helen Mirren, Jennifer Garner, Greta Gerwig, Nick Nolte, Luis Guzman

<b>Directed by:</b> Jason Winer

<b>Other:</b> A Warner Bros. release. Rated PG-13 for substance abuse, language, sexual situations. 109 minutes.