Arthur     B-

Movie review: Acacia

Arthur is a happy drunk with no pretensions or any ambition. He is also the heir to a vast fortune. Arthur is forced to marry a woman he doesn’t love or lose his inheritance. Arthur proposes but then meets a Linda, played by Liza Minnelli, a woman with no money whom he falls in love with. This was the plot of the original 1981 movie starring the late Dudley Moore. Not much has changed in the 2011 version of the light-hearted comedy.

The new millennium Arthur stars Russell Brand [Arthur Bach] as the loveable drunken billionaire, Helen Mirren his lifelong nanny, Hobson, a straight-talking English woman who treats Arthur like he’s still a naughty child, which his behavior warrants. Their interaction is central to the movie and gives the film its warmth. Hobson is very much a mother figure to Arthur even if he realizes it too late. Through their relationship, Arthur finally grow up. Greta Gerwig makes her big screen debut as Naomi, taking over the love interest role that Liza Minnelli played while Jennifer Garner plays Susan, the cutthroat and ambitious woman that Arthur is ordered to marry. The two women certainly contrast each other, but I didn’t really need nor want their characters in the movie. As I said before, it’s all about Hobson and Arthur.

However, Gerwig played a convincingly sweet woman, someone you wouldn’t be surprised childlike Arthur would fall head over heels for. Jennifer Garner played against type but she sunk her teeth into the role of Susan. She wasn’t given much, but it seemed she relished being a little evil. Neither was the great Nick Nolte, who plays Susan’s father, Burt Johnson. Luis Guzman plays Bitterman, Arthur’s driver and he was wasted in the role because anyone who has seen his work knows he could’ve been hilarious. But, unfortunately, he wasn’t given much to do except say a quip or wear a stupid outfit every once in awhile. Brand and Mirren had decent performances, giving a really thin script some substance. Overall, the movie was sweet and only a little naughty, just like its predecessor.

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