British comedian Russell Brand has made a career of playing a signature, one-note character; the immature, boozy womanizer who has many faults, but is charming and likeable. His remake of the Dudley Moore classic, Arthur, is entirely in this vein. Brand isn't stepping out on a ledge here, pretty much delivering what we expect. The difference is the female ensemble. They add a breath of heart and humor that is the saving grace of this film. The plot is about as vanilla as it gets, but I did have quite a few chuckles watching this cast in action. Apart from the title character, this Arthur is nothing like the original. The filmmakers chose a different direction to avoid any comparisons, but that is unavoidable as this film is clearly not in the same league.

Brand stars as billionaire playboy Arthur Bach. He spends his time drinking, sleeping with as many women as possible, and blowing huge sums of money on ridiculous items. His latest drunken endeavor crashing the batmobile into the Wall Street bull has his mother (Geraldine James) on her last nerve. She threatens to cut off Arthur entirely...unless he marries a predatory businesswoman (Jennifer Garner), whom she's grooming to take over the company. Arthur reluctantly agrees, but by chance meets and falls for a free-spirited tour guide (Greta Gerwig). Only his devoted nanny, Hobson (Helen Mirren), can guide Arthur into making the right choice.

Russell Brand's spiel is hit or miss. How you feel about him is how you feel about this film. I think the filmmakers reign him in and he's more humorous than aggravating. Although I can understand if the audience wears thin. His previous film, Get Him to the Greek, was Russell Brand overload and funny. This is Russell Brand light, and at least to me, fits the part. He's no Dudley Moore, and there's zero nuance to his perfomance here, but I didn't find him annoying to the point where it distracted from the movie.

The female parts in Arthur are somewhat stereotypical, but works in this context. Jennifer Garner is positively nasty as the social-climber fiance from hell. Greta Gerwig is cute as buttons as the wispy gal pal. But the real star and anchor of Arthur is the great Helen Mirren. Hobson is such a different take on the original character immortalized by Sir John Geilgud. Mirren's plays off Brand's goofiness with a doting wit and motherly sensibility. This character interaction works. It gets a bit melodramatic at times, but the audience does believe that this woman, despite Arthur's problems, will get him straight.

Arthur is a breezy date movie and nothing more. I found it mildly entertaining, but by no means would plunk down to see at today's movie prices. It's not comparable to the original, and anyone expecting that is misguided.