Arthur

Directed by Jason Winer

(PG-13)

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This remake of a 1981 hit Dudley Moore comedy gets a few things right, said Mick LaSalle in the San Francisco Chronicle. Stepping into the title role as a tipsy playboy billionaire who’s being pressured to grow up and marry well, the British comic Russell Brand harbors a “darkness inside him” that “feels right for the time and for the character.” But while it’s a relief that the update acknowledges “the 2-ton elephant” in the room—namely Arthur’s alcoholism—the decision to give him an AA scene reflects a bigger problem: “Something within us just doesn’t trust fun the way we used to.” Both alcohol and money-to-burn wealth “mean completely different things in the movies now than they did 30 years ago,” said Dana Stevens in Slate.com. Neither has a chance of tickling our funny bones. Brand deserves more blame than we do, said Owen Gleiberman in Entertainment Weekly. Where Moore was a “happy rascal” whose drunkenness won sympathy, Brand comes across as an egotist overdosing on “self-love.” Not only does he fail to connect with the audience: “He doesn’t connect with anyone on-screen.”