Institute History
Description
Jake and Josh Adams (Tim Blake Nelson and David Arquette) are mama's boys toiling away on a dusty farm. But when Ma (Lois Smith) kicks the bucket, they're left to fend for themselves and learn quickly that they can't. Jake decides it's time the brothers got some help around the house, so they pack up Ma's urn and embark on a "romance tour" of St. Petersburg, Russia, in search of a wife or two. As Jake conducts interviews, Josh seeks a mate the old-fashioned way—he hits the nightclubs. When British journalist Angela (Emily Mortimer) puts them in her documentary, all three discover more than they intended about life and love.
By interspersing the narrative with mockumentary footage of the romance tourists, director Helmut Schleppi sends up the selfish and ultimately clueless men who are convinced they can find wives like they might find personal assistants. Through sharp and colorful cinematography, St. Petersburg is painted as a beautifully barren wasteland full of women waiting to be snatched up by American men. And with the funny and touching brotherly dynamic of wildman Arquette and straightman Nelson, whose uneasy masculinity is tempered by Mortimer's self-assured femininity, Schleppi gets to the heart of human relationships: They're all about relating.