Television director Jason Winer's remake of the 1981 pseudo classic, which stared Dudley Moore, succeeds based on the casting of its three main characters.
Recovered-addict-poster boy Russell Brand plays Arthur, a filthy rich developmentally challenged man/boy with an endearing twinkle of sincerity in his glassy eyes. Arthur's caring nanny (well played by Helen Mirren) is dependably there to clean Arthur up after his regular nights of drunken carousing.
A Batman-influenced car chase opening sequence goes too far into the realm of silliness, but it does get your attention. The film's secret weapon is Greta Gerwig. She plays Naomi, a New York ingénue impressed by, but not driven toward, Arthur's ostentatious wealth.
Gerwig's guileless character lets slip the film's subtext of sensitivity with a kind of thematic striptease that occurs in her subtle facial expressions.
The movie is more of a romantic comedy than a how-the-mighty-fall diatribe on Charlie Sheen-styled shenanigans. Fluffy though it might be, "Arthur" is a heartwarming comedy. That's certainly more than you can say for the typical Hollywood romcom.
