Deep down, I think we all long for our own personal Batmobile.

Because of financial realities, few of us will ever live this dream. Unless you live near a barn or a cave and catch a bunch of bats in a net and then staple the bats to your hood and doors. Even then, you'll have to shell out on the air freshener.

But you know what isn't so cool about being Batmobile-buyingly rich? When you have to learn to deal with the problems of normal people. People without rockets on their cars. Just ask Arthur.

-- Local show times, theaters, trailer.

Russell Brand is the heir to a billion-dollar fortune. He's also an irresponsible drunken playboy whose disgraceful antics are scaring investors away from his mother's company. She offers him an ultimatum: marry prominent businesswoman Jennifer Garner, who'll put a good face on the company, or lose his inheritance.

But Brand thinks Garner is a crazy, cold social climber. And he's just met Greta Gerwig, who he might be falling in love with, putting his sham marriage and his inheritance at risk.

The previews for Arthur somehow completely eluded the fact Brand's character is a shameless drunk, which is a fairly amazing feat of editing, given that he's constantly so pickled he should be sliced and served alongside a corned beef sandwich. Then again, that trailer editor may have had the easiest job in the world: all he had to do was splice together the few moments of the movie where Brand isn't swigging from a glass, bottle or flask.

Or maybe they were just chasing the big bucks of the "idiot man-child" market. Or maybe the studio was afraid to advertise their main character is a ridiculous alcoholic. Whatever the case, it's funny. Really, really funny.

Written by Peter Baynham, co-writer of Borat, Arthur is practically one long joke, packed with sly and not-so-sly verbal wit. Perfectly suited for Brand and Helen Mirren as his witheringly sarcastic nanny, Baynham's script is recognizably British. This means there are jokes about tea. And also the French and the difference between them and the Germans. I believe, however, it successfully evaded any punchlines about kippers.

Meanwhile, director Jason Winer invests it with a pell-mell chaotic energy that, despite all the booze, Batmobiles, and impromptu parties, doesn't try too hard to say "Hey, this guy is a crazy-cool Willy Wonka except with vodka instead of chocolate. Unless it is a chocolate martini." This works in part, of course, through Brand's performance as a frivolous, wealthy fool who's perfectly aware that he's a frivolous fool. Naturally, if you're not a Brand-fan, this isn't going to come off so well. Personally, as someone with no strong prior feelings about him besides the conviction that he looks like he should be an elf-king, I was charmed.

But it isn't all peaches and vodka and cream. Or whatever liquor actually mixes with cream (correct answer: whiskey). The plot's pretty standard. If you spoke aloud, right now, how you think it will turn out for Brand, who's engaged to one woman but in love with another, you would be right. And also rightly mocked by your coworkers for talking to yourself, weirdy.

Also, considering Brand's massive charisma, he's got remarkably little chemistry with Gerwig. I don't always buy the chemistry argument--as if movie critics, people paid to hide away in dark rooms all day, are somehow qualified to judge who really feels like they'd make a good couple--but screw it, they don't.

But the romance angle isn't wildly obnoxious or anything, either, so it can comfortably be brushed aside. Brand and the dialogue are the real stars here. Both are hilarious enough to cover for any weaknesses in Arthur's plot.

Grade: B

* Contact Ed Robertson at edwrobertson@gmail.com. His fiction is available on Kindle through Amazon.