Step Brothers: Star Studded Sibling Rivalry

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The stars of Talladega Nights, Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly, reteam for the new movie Step Brothers.  Ferrell and Reilly play a pair of jobless, clueless 40-year olds so coddled by their respective single-parent that they still haven’t moved out.  When their parents marry each other and move in together, Ferrell and Reilly are forced to share a room in much the same manner that children of divorce are subjected to everyday.
 

At first, the two hate each other.  Familiarity (or is similarity?) breeds contempt.  However, they eventually bond over shared passions: music, bad television shows and karate (if you can call what they do “karate”).  And as they realize how much they have in common, they bond and learn an important lesson about life and love.

I know, it sounds stupid.  And it is.  But in a good way.  These sorts of movies are never about the plot anyway.  They live and die from scene-to-scene and joke-to-joke.  Quick, what was the plot of Anchorman?  Who knows?  Who cares?  It was funny and it’s immensely quotable.   And surprisingly, so is Step Brothers.  While it might not be in Anchorman’s neighborhood, it’s certainly wouldn’t be a long distance call.

The movie hinges on the chemistry between Ferrell and Reilly, and there is plenty.  I recently chided Mamma Mia for being a movie in which the cast clearly had fun but little of it actually translated to the screen.  That’s not the case with Step Brothers.  Ferrell and Reilly are obviously having a blast and, in turn, we have a blast too.

John C. Reilly is interesting in that his career has taken the opposite route compared to what we normally see.  Typically it’s the comedic actor that longs to be taken seriously in the dramatic roles.  Jim Carrey, Mike Myers, Robin Williams, Jerry Lewis, Charlie Chaplin…the list is as old as Hollywood itself.  However, Reilly is the rare exception: the serious actor that branches out to comedy.  There is a famous quote from Sir Donald Wolfit, who reportedly said on his death bed, “Dying is easy, comedy is hard.”  Great actors have tried their hands at it and failed dismally.  Look no further than Warren Beatty and Dustin Hoffman in the infamous Ishtar.  Two Oscar winning actors tried their hands at it and crashed and burned so spectacularly that the title of their film is now shorthand for “colossal failure.”  But, Reilly delivers as does Will Ferrell.  Step Brothers is a broad, goofy fun time.

Kathryn Hahn plays Will Ferrell’s sister-in-law and absolutely steals the movie.  Her repressed hatred for her husband (played with slimy, overachieving glee by Adam Scott) manifests itself as animal attraction for John C. Reilly’s increasingly confused man-child.

Step Brothers does drag a little in the last third as the movie fumbles for some sort of conclusion.  And it’s somewhat hampered by its conflicting messages.  The movie seems to tout responsibility on one hand, but tells us to reach for our dreams (no matter how absurd they are) on the other.  My guess would be that this illustrates the dichotomy between the right-leaning Judd Apatow (the producer) and the left-leaning Will Ferrell.

This is Ferrell’s funniest movie since Talladega Nights and maybe even since Anchorman.  Make no mistake: if you cringe at the mention of either of those movies then perhaps you ought to just go see The Dark Knight again (I heard they could use the money).  However, if you find that Will Ferrell can be sublime in his idiocy, then this movie represents a return to form.

On a scale of 1 to 10, with 10 being Anchorman and 1 Kicking & Screaming, Step Brothers gets an 8.

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