Fate throws them a curve ball when they have a terrible car accident, but Alice discovers a curious teapot in an antique shop near the crash scene. Soon, the teapot is Alice’s and she makes a crazy discovery the following day, after burning herself with a curling iron. The teapot had produced hundred dollar bills. When she stubs her foot on a chair, more money appears. When John gets home, he thinks Alice has been assaulted, but when she explains it to him, they see a way out of their financial hole. Soon, they are rolling in money, but magic always comes at a high cost. Additionally, the teapot has others seeking it, both good and bad. Can John and Alice manage to stay one step ahead, while not going too far down this dangerous path to wealth?
The Brass Teapot is a genius comedy that I loved from start to finish. Angarano and Temple are fantastic as they morph from good, simple people to greedy, unsavory ones. Alia Shawkat was great as well, but a bit underused for her genius and although I haven’t seen Billy Moynihan before, he was fantastic too. Both Billy Magnussen and Alexis Bledel play characters you love to hate and they do it well.
Special features include a handful of deleted scenes that are enjoyable to watch, but the story was better because they were left out of the film. The same goes for the prologue/alternate opening, although it gave more insight into the teapot’s mysterious life before John and Alice. There are short interviews with actor Michael Angarano and Director Ramaa Mosley which gave some interesting insight into the film and an AXS TV piece which was cobbled together from the other interviews that appear on the disc and footage from the film. Commentary is also available, as is a "documentary" about the mythos of the brass teapot. It was created specifically for the film, but was really neat nonetheless. It’s great to see famous paintings where they snuck the teapot in. My favorite is Da Vinci's "Finger of God" where the teapot is dangling from God’s finger. Hysterical stuff.
Naturally, the picture and sound are crisp and clear on Blu-ray, but there wasn’t anything particularly spectacular about the visuals. Overall, The Brass Teapot is hysterical and highly recommended. There are some adult themes here, so beware of that. It’s not a movie for kids, but I didn’t find the comedy so dark as to not be thoroughly enjoyable. Definitely check it out - it’s one of the funniest movies I have seen this year.
