As self-centered illusionist Gob Bluth on the brilliant if short-lived sitcom Arrested Development,  Will Arnett wrung laughs out of his character’s flamboyant combination of insecurity, competitiveness and showmanship. During his career as both a writer and performer on Saturday Night Live, Will Forte has shown a penchant for embracing the absurd — whether in recurring bits as soft-voiced politician Tim Calhoun and the bearded, woodsy loner known as the Falconer, or in a sketch last year with Peyton Manning in which he played a high school coach who delivers his halftime stump speech in the form of an extended, goofy, improvisational dance. While each actor has appeared in a couple movies up to this point — most notably Arnett in this spring’s $100 million-plus hit Blades of Glory, opposite wife Amy Poehler — both performers are trying to find their way when it comes to movies. In a way, they’re each attempting to follow in the footsteps of SNL alumnus Will Ferrell, who, largely courtesy of his golden touch with intense himbo vacuousness, has successfully transitioned from small screen funnyman to someone that audiences would actually pay to see on the big screen.



The two lesser Wills’ joint bet is The Brothers Solomon, starring Arnett (above left) and Forte (right, also the film's writer) as two goodhearted but romantically challenged brothers who decide to try to father a baby in order to give their coma-stricken father (Lee Majors) something to live for. Coming on the heels of both Knocked Up and Superbad earlier this summer, The Brothers Solomon combines elements of the former’s prenatal hijinks with rudiments of the latter’s fraternal bonding.

While there’s just a pinch of Dumb & Dumber-style comedy to the proceedings, John (Arnett) and Dean (Forte) are mostly just socially inept, yet still somehow unflappably, unfailingly positive-minded. After a string of dates leave them still unable to find a woman "to enter," as John puts it, the undeterred siblings change tactics and place an online ad for a surrogate partner. Janine (Kristen Wiig) responds to the brothers’ entreaty and, for a hefty fee, agrees to carry a child to term for them, even as John works on a back-up plan in the form of neighbor Tara (Malin Ackerman). As the pregnancy progresses and Dean and John embark on an ill-advised crash-course of their own devising on parenting, Janine and her ex-but-now-on-again boyfriend James (Chi McBride) — a strange fourth wheel in the relationship — eventually begin to warm to the brothers’ full-court-press enthusiasm.

Some of the script’s few baroque touches — like the fact that the brothers, upon hearing that their father is in the hospital, hurriedly stop by the video store to dispute a late charge on a rental of Ulee’s Gold — make for nice laughs, but, for the most part, The Brothers Solomon is a wan showcase presentation; it's the filmic equivalent of a performance-centric one-man show that just happens to have two stars. The problem, though, is that the brothers’ serial oddness — both of the actors' performances are powered by waxy, perpetual smiles — could and probably should be taken as creepy, or at least a little more strange. For much of the movie, though, there’s a strange absence of conflict or tension, which means we're just playing out a string. Ergo, devoted fans of the principals will be suitably entertained, others by degrees less so. For the full original review, from FilmStew, click here.