'SNL' Family Tree Drops a Stinker

By Michael Phillips, Chicago Tribune, Zap2It.com | September 7, 2007

Will Arnett and Will Forte in 'The Brothers Solomon'

Discuss this story now

The peals of silence destined to greet "The Brothers Solomon," the not-funniest comedy of the year so far, are doubly depressing because the film squanders several funny performers. My favorite is Kristen Wiig, the "Saturday Night Live" regular who was so good as the undermining E! Network lackey in "Knocked Up." Here she's stuck playing third banana to Will Arnett ("Arrested Development" and perhaps one too many voiceovers) and Will Forte, another "SNL" cast member and the "Solomon" screenwriter. The Wills play the socially maladroit brothers of the title, cockeyed optimists raised in an arctic science lab by a Grizzly Adams-type dad (Lee Majors). Dad slips into a coma just after expressing the wish for a grandson. The brothers take out an ad on Craigslist and find their surrogate $10,000 mother, played by Wiig.

Nothing is harder to overcome as a performer than a comedy going south. Director Bob Odenkirk lets every other exchange dribble on, suffocating on its own dead air and diorama staging. Arnett has done well in supporting roles (he was the evil rival skater in "Blades of Glory"), but he's exhausting here, geeking around with his scarifyingly whitened teeth like a stalker, even though he's meant to be Charming Down Deep. When Wiig's character decides to keep the baby, you're inevitably thrown into "Knocked Up" comparisons, which do "Solomon" no favors. This summer's previous "SNL" knockoff comedy, "Hot Rod," was a comic rocket compared to this mirth-free inertia.

Get showtimes and movie details for "The Brothers Solomon."