The Brothers Bloom (2008)

I can only think of one reason to watch The Brothers Bloom.

I'd love to say i loved Rian Johnson's debut Brick but i didn't. Rachel Weisz and Adrian Brody are usually good in... stuff. But this was about the Ruffalo for me. Love me some Ruffalo. The ruffley buffalo- Mark Ruffalo. I'd seen the trailer for The Brothers Bloom, so i knew it was an adventure romp dealy but it's would need more than Mark Ruffalo to make a good film. Cause i presume there will be scenes without him in it. Can't be all him.

That would be awesome though....

Found on Chas Andrews Movie Blog
http://bit.ly/fgDo72

Okay, 3days into this thing and i'm already struggling to write a review. It was easy to write the last 2 because one i loved and the other i hated. The Brothers Bloom was hard for me to feel strongly about. It started off well with a riproaring opening - a prologue about the young orphan brothers, where they develop their craft of the 'con' and then you see them at the end of a recent job. After that the brothers initiate their final ('final?' 'Final, i promise this time'.) FINAL job to scam gazzilionairess Rachel Weisz, with Asian pixie dream girl/explosions expert Rinko Kikuchi in tow.

Stylistically, I caught myself finding similarities in The Brothers Bloom with Wes Anderson's stuff and there are. They have characters that hide their insecurities in big plans and plots but more obviously, there's scrummy 70's style European phototography and they're all wearing these beautiful vintage costumes. The difference being that Wes Anderson characters look like they wear Comme des Garçons because they probably do because they know what Comme des Garçons is; The Brothers Bloom only look like they do because they probably don't.   

What Rian Johnson has set out to do here is make a Conman movie, not really about the 'Con' but a character study in the con-men and the victim and i can understand why he would think that's a good idea but... I'm not sure it's possible because conman movies have to be fast-moving by their nature; you can't really stop and think about what going on cos... that's.. what you do in character studies? Hmm.

Maybe I'm being short-sighted. A film i'm pouring over this week is Inception, not strictly a Conman movie perhaps but confidence-tricks are a massive part of that film (as well as dreams, drugs, memories, consciousness, death, security- i could go on, it's got a lot on its docket...) But despite dealing with these weighty topics plus a plot, Inception's not bogged down by them- It moves very quickly not because the character's are running around while giving exposition. No, it's just that 80% of the dialogue furthers the plot or the viewer's understanding about the film's characters or devices. I've gone off on an Inception tangent, haven't i? Sorry. I just BLOODY LOVE Inception. I'm currently watching it an hour at a time, a night, like a mini-series(!?). 

So if Inception constantly working for the viewer to communicate and inform, The Brothers Bloom takes little breaks. Like the 2nd act.

I don't want to rag on the film- Everyone is great in it, especially Rinko Kikuchi playing a cartoonish, goofy, mischievous Rambo and it's very fun because everybody’s having a laugh. But then nobody's actually messing-over anyone else in this 'Conman' movie really, and i know it must seem like a bit of a tired convention to Rian Johnson, to have characters double-crossing each other, but i think that's one you should probably stick to.

I watched the Comme des Garçons Fall collection/Incepti-ahem-The Brothers Bloom on DVD, rented from LoveFilm. http://bit.ly/grnxhm

My 2011 in Movies will return with Chloe (2008)...