Ugh. I know it's a Tuesday morning, so I didn't expect a crowded theatre. The theatre had just two of us to see "The Brothers Solomon," but the other guy walked out halfway through. Didn't pretend to be taking a call, didn't spill anything on himself, just left. Perhaps here's why...
Home-schooled, social misfit brothers John and Dean have zero luck with the ladies, from misguided attempts at wit to downright rude comments. They get a voicemail that their dad has slipped into a coma, and the brothers rush to the hospital, after first stopping to dispute video rental charges and rent a new movie (Finding Forrester, if you're keeping track).
They arrive five minutes too late to hear dad utter his only regret, not having the chance to see his first grandchild. The brothers have a brainchild of an idea to have a kid to give dad a reason to have the will to keep living. Their social graces don't improve, of course, but they manage to get a response to a posting on Craig's List for a surrogate mom, and a visit to the fertility clinic later, and the baby havin's a'happenin'.
If you're a fan of either of the Wills (Arnett and Forte, a la 'Saturday Night Live'), you may get more out of the film. It's comedy style is definitely an acquired taste that I found hasn't yet made it to my palette. The gags weren't terribly high-brow, but they didn't strike me as overly amusing, either.
The brothers genuinely seem to care about one another and dad, so there's no real shortage of perceived family values in this one. The having a brilliant idea to mend things with surrogate mom Janine and the one brother running the wrong way, because there's an apple orchard the other way, is very much Jim Carrey / Dumb and Dumber sort of writing.
Director Bob Odenkirk has been behind the camera on several films I've sat through, but none sit in my memory as anything more than a mere title recognition. I suspect for the masses of the movie-going public, this one won't fare much better.
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