I've always been a big fan of con man movies. Everybody's always so cool. They know every angle, every player, intimately. They're always ten steps ahead, or it's like they're playing chess while mopes like me are playin' checkers. Hell, I even dig semi-competent con movies like 2003's Confidence(which coincidentally also starred Rachel Weisz). The best con movies are basically cons in and of themselves. We as the audience should only be privy to just enough information to fool ourselves with. Give us too much and there's no payoff, we already know the score. Give us too little, and the payoff might feel cheap and tacked on with little dramatic effect. The Brothers Bloom, the follow up film from brilliant director Rian Johnson, is not your typical con movie. It's funnier, more of a fairy tale than anything else, almost dreamlike in its presentation.
Those who saw the opening 7 minutes here on the site(you wouldn't go elsewhere, would ya?) know the story begins with the two Bloom brothers, Stephen and Bloom(Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody). I don't know why one is named Bloom, but I'd love to find out. Of the two, Stephen is the most outwardly aggressive and conniving, fiercely protective of his weaker young sibling. The two bounce around from foster home to foster home, getting sent back after any number of hilarious shenanigans. Their biggest score as kids comes after a slow play involving a group of spoiled rich kids being swindled out of $2 apiece in an attempt to catch a non-existent will o'the wisp. The boys are cons, but they believe wholly that the best con is one in which everybody ultimately gets what they wanted. Words they will live by and use in their schemes. The opening sequence is so enjoyable, so meaty, that it could support a film on it's own. I was reluctant to see the two kids leave for fear that their lives as adults couldn't possibly measure up, but I was very wrong.
In the ensuing years, Bloom has pulled further and further away from his brother, no longer wanting to play the smooth lothario in their twisted games. He wants something real, not staged. But Stephen convinces him of one more play. The mark: a sheltered heiress named Penelope(Rachel Weisz). Penelope is a bit of a cypher at first: quiet,eccentric, but filled with a longing for real adventure. She has the hobby of collecting, well, hobbies. She skateboards, plays ping pong, juggles(literally everything including chainsaws), and does anything she sees that looks interesting. It's all just a way of passing the time. The Brothers recognize this, and Bloom uses his charm to convince her to go away with them on an adventure filled cruise, the ultimate plan to gain her confidence to the point where they can fleece her of roughly $2.5M. Things obviously don't go as planned, as Bloom begins to have real feelings for Penelope. But after all these years of feigning genuine feelings for his potential victims, does Bloom even know what actual love feels like?
The world of The Brothers Bloom has one foot set in the real world, the other foot firmly planted in fantasy. At times it feels like the world is just one big storybook, full of lush locales and giant castles. Even New Jersey feels a little magical in this film. It reminded me a little bit of In Bruges, with the way that little town seemed stuck in both medieval and present times. I couldn't place where in time this movie was supposed to take place, and frankly I didn't care. It only makes it more timeless as far as I'm concerned.
What unfolds is a con within a con within a con, to the point where you almost feel as if it's gone on a bit too long. At one point I felt that the film had reached it's natural conclusion. The plan had been revealed front and center, all had been exposed for who they truly were, and yet there was still one more step to go. Thankfully, Rian Johnson was right in his idea that this final push was necessary to see where these amazing characters would go when everything they had all so carefully and meticulously planned began to crumble around them. The ending of Bloom is heartbreaking and satisfying, with promises of greater adventures to come.
It was impossible for me not to fall in love with Rachel Weisz here. She's always been one of my favorite actresses, beautiful, elegant, and classy. At her sexiest when she appears to be trying the least to be so. Here she's mousy and vulnerable at first, but becomes the fiery center of this crew of jaded, cynical crime artistes. It's obvious that Penelope is more than the sum of her parts, but she keeps just enough of her true knowledge hidden just beneath the surface. She only reveals it slightly in a brilliant scene in which she performs an ingenious card trick in what must've been a wildly difficult scene to shoot. Everyone involved here is at the top of their game. Adrien Brody brings it as the disillusioned Bloom. He and Weisz share a chemistry that I did not expect them to have together. Mark Ruffalo is no favorite of mine, which perhaps is why I enjoyed him so much as the Bloom Brother you just love to hate. His every word is manipulative, even his most basic gestures seem self serving, even when they're not. But the breakout star for me was Rinko Kikuchi as the silent assassin, Bang Bang. She only has 3 words throughout the entire film, but it's her actions and mannerisms that draw you to her in every single scene. Whether she's blowing up Barbie dolls or just holding up a cue card at an inappropriate time, she is the comedic heart of this film. She's now basically played two mute characters in a row, if you count her performance as a deaf-mute girl in Babel, and she brings something totally different to both roles. Great stuff.
I haven't been this enthralled with a director's first two films since P.T. Anderson gave us Hard Eight and Boogie Nights back to back. The Brothers Bloom is a con film of a different sort, exactly what I would expect from the guy who brought us the freshest take on film noir in a generation. If you're a fan of the con game, you will find something in this to enjoy. If you love comedy, you will find something in this to enjoy. If there's anything I can promise it is that you will leave this film with a smile on your face. In the end, everybody ultimately will get what they want out of it. The perfect con.
9/10
