The title character of “Arthur,” despite his stunning similarity to Willy Wonka in “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory,” transcends Johnny Depp’s creepiness with a clever tongue that can make a joke out of just about anything, as well as a dazzling sense of romance. Though it is a bit too long (110 minutes) and somewhat unrealistic, “Arthur,” a Warner Brothers production, is a cute and funny romantic comedy.
Arthur Bach (Russell Brand), the sole heir to an unimaginably rich family business, is an overgrown 30-year-old child without a single worry in the whole wide world. However, his carefree life, which involves damaging his family’s reputation in all ways possible, abruptly ends when his mother gives him an ultimatum: he must marry the heiress Susan Johnson (Jennifer Garner), a woman he has no feelings for, or he will lose the family fortune. Money and his lifelong nanny Hobson (Helen Mirren) have been essential to him. Without either, Arthur likely would not have survived in the real world. Thus, without a second thought, Arthur jumps into the marriage trap. This is exactly when he meets the love of his life, the happy and hard-working Naomi. Caught between his forceful fiancée, Susan, and his true love Naomi, Arthur has to make the single most important decision he has ever faced.
At the beginning of the movie, a terribly cliché Batman charade had me almost convinced that this was just another shallow film rife with cheap humor and lacking memorable depth. However, as the movie progressed, it proved me wrong. A fairly rich film (as any two-hour movie should be), “Arthur” does a decent job of blending humor, romance and emotion.
It is, firstly, a solidly funny movie. Russell Brand lends his British accent perfectly to Arthur’s comedic talents. One such hilarious moment is when Arthur tricks his nanny into speaking through a Darth Vader helmet.
“Arthur” is also a very romantic movie. With virtually unlimited funds at his disposal, Arthur, and the filmmakers, have no trouble turning any romantic’s wildest dreams into reality. How about a candlelight dinner over a huge carpet of rose petals in an empty Grand Central Terminal with trampoline artists performing? No problem!
In light of its humorous nature, one might find it a little surprising that “Arthur” contains some truly moving emotional elements. The revelations of Hobsons’ secret, of Arthur’s lies and of Naomi’s subsequent heartbreak are just a few examples of the conflicts the movie aims to unravel.
One pitfall of the movie is that such a love story seems to only exist in fairytales. Despite an emotional depth that the audience can truly relate to, the story itself has a rather unrealistic premise based upon the unbelievable extent of Arthur’s childishness, magical and almost Cinderella-esque plot developments and extreme extravagances such as a magnetic floating bed that only a billionaire could dream of affording. Thus, the lack of realism might detract from the overall popularity of the movie.
A rather long film, “Arthur” covers almost all the elements one can expect from a movie: humor, romance, family drama, conspiracy and even cool special effects like the fire-blasting Batman car. Unrealistic or not, “Arthur” is still a cute treat for those who like this sort of film.