The Weinstein Company's Our Idiot Brother (opening today) is a rare Paul Rudd movie that's actually deserving of, and lives up to, his comic brilliance and his heart as a performer. Director Jesse Peretz (who'd previously worked with Rudd on The Chateau) and writers Evgenia Peretz and David Schisgall have cooked up a guiltless guilty pleasure in this warmly funny, mildly subversie ensemble piece about a hapless hippy fuck-up and his alternately supportive and judgmental sisters, played by Elizabeth Banks (pictured), Zooey Deschanel and Emily Mortimer. It's a movie I hope will get the attention it deserves even if it's not as commercially idiotic as its title suggests.

Hahn and T.J. Miller are organically hysterical as Ned's ex and ex-in-law

Ned (Rudd) breaks up with his girlfriend (a hysterically deadpan Kathryn Hahn) after a stint in prison for selling pot to a uniformed police officer (yes, he's that trusting) and winds up having to bounce from sister to sister mother (an embarrassingly underused Shirley Knight) in order to have a place to crash. Miranda (Banks, who is a dead ringer for Parker Posey in every frame) is a go-getting Vanity Fair writer attempting to ignore her feelings for a snarky neighbor (Adam Scott), Natalie (Deschanel) is a free-spirited bisexual finally in a committed relationship (with a rather unimaginatively textbook lesbian, played by Rashida Jones with as much thought as June Allyson once put into playing a lesbian—the latter wore her son's baseball uniform) and Liz (Mortimer) is an uptight housewife whose hubby (Steve Coogan) is a prick of a documentary filmmaker and cheating on her to boot.

A total fuck-up who comes out smelling like a rose

The hilarity of watching Ned stumble into situations that uproot everyone's lives is expertly sustained throughout by Peretz, with only a few missteps in the story that feel a bit easy. Ned does more than one idiotic thing, yet his authenticity goes a long way toward helping to underscore who the real idiots are. Rudd's performance is absolutely spot-on—funny, endearing and even sexy enough to attract the interest of a couple in one scene that's a great alternative to the typical gay-panic scene.

Do NOT miss this one, man. Like, wow. I mean...yeah.