The Brothers Bloom (2009) is a stylish quirky con-game movie, the second movie written and directed by Rian (“Brick”) Johnson.  Since it insists on being more than breezy commercial movie and intentionally plays with expectations will vary widely as to how successful or even entertaining the film is.  It is intentionally overly stylish and theatrical to the point of being hammy at times and then tries to deliver some scenes of half-serious pathos (which if you actually take it seriously—it is your own fault, but some will).  

In a different era this is the kind of the film that would have been booked into a couple of movie theaters for 6 to 8 weeks.  Some in the audience would be passionate about the film and a solid word of mouth would generate some interest in the movie until it would wind up selling out multiple midnight movie showings and develop a healthy cult following.

Alas that’s not what happens to films today.  Bloom received a limited release in several big cities but if you blinked, you probably missed your opportunity to see this one in a theater.  It played for two weeks in May after the original late fall 2008 and Spring 2009 release dates were changed.  Now as I put the finishing touches on this review I see Bloom was given mostly mixed and several poor reviews, dooming it to be re-discovered (maybe) on DVD.

Let it be so.

It’s a clever film with lots of alternately stylish and quirky touches that won’t always click with mainstream audiences.  If you’re a fan of The Stunt Man you don’t need to read anything more, you’ll enjoy this film, buy it, enjoy it.
 
The film adopts a breezy feel reminiscent of Topkapi and Who’s Minding the Mint with a dash of dark like David Mamet’s The Spanish Prisoner.  There are also scenes that remind me of a screwball comedy like Bringing up Baby.  

The visual style and style over substance feel will cause some to react negatively.  It is not that the movie has an actual chip on its shoulder or is particularly pretentious but some will perceive it as such.   The movie is smart, with many literal and cinematic references made.  NOTE: There are quite a few Three Musketeers references (which I’ll let you discover for yourself).  The wardrobe featuring stylish suits and hats for the leads might make you wonder if Johnson was going for The Sting.  The director also has visual homages to Bertolucci’s The Conformist and Fellini’s 8 ½.  Johnson modeled the visual style of the film after Bertolucci and if you are so inclined there is a red and white them used throughout. ( Note: Several reviews I have just read claim that Johnson is trying to copy Wes (Rushmore, Royal Tenenbaums) Anderson, but this is a mis-read.)

Brothers Bloom is a playful film featuring memorable performances from leads Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi (a popular Japanese star and previously seen in Babel) with nice support from Maximilian Schell and Robbie Coltrane.
 
In the opening sequence, narrated by Ricky Jay, we meet the teenage versions of the Brothers Bloom.  Stephen is the leader, writing detailed con game instructions with roles for the brothers to play in their schemes.  Younger brother who is just called by his last name of Bloom, is shy and brooding.   The Brothers are already wearing black suits and derby hats.  The cons are discovered and the boys are sent away from one foster home after another, their bond to each other growing more and more solid.  All they have is each other. 

Because the younger Bloom is so shy, older brother Stephen begins adding romance for his brother so that Bloom will play his part and flirt with girls as part of the con game.   We leap 20 years into the future.   Stephen (Ruffalo) is still writing the con plots and Bloom (Brody) is still the brooding quiet one.   They dress stylishly, stay in fancy hotels, travel by steamer, work with sinister smugglers, art dealers and Russians who drive fancy armored BMWs. 
 
Bloom hates the work and how written and planned his life has become.  He is lonely and depressed and tries to quit but Stephen with the always quite demolition expert Bang Bang (Kikuchi) have lined up one more big con for them to pull off.    It involves duping the very rich, but very odd and beautiful heiress Penelope, played by Rachel Weisz.  And the movie becomes  a screwball “To Catch A Thief”.    

Penelope the rich bored social misfit has a number of hobbies she’s quite good at and cannot drive her stick shift Lamborghini without crashing or denting it.  An elaborate con is begun, but soon we are wondering if perhaps Penelope who seems to be enjoying the new adventure too much, is hustling the brothers.

Ruffalo as Stephen plays the fast talking con artist with a vulnerable slightly dark side that might confuse some.  Brody plays the brooding sad sack very well and his transformation into a more passionate man injects the film with a nice energy.  Weisz’ performance of  Penelope seems to combine the best of a manic Katherine Hepburn (Bringing up Baby) with the graceful beauty of Audrey Hepburn.  She almost steals the film but then there’s Kikuchi as Bang Bang, the pretty nearly silent Asian who is nearly silent for the whole film, like a Harpo Marx, except that her expressions are mostly deadpan in the Buster Keaton mode.  Her natural comic timing is wonderful and she’s fun to watch front and center doing things like blowing up Barbie dolls and  you search the background of several scenes watching what she is up to.  She’s very funny.

Mostly the film is shot in Prague, Montenegro, Belgrade and Greece.  Montenegro also doubles for Mexico and Belgrade for New Jersey.  The ending of the film might cause some confusion might not be quite what you were expecting or might cause you to think two or three things could still be happening.  Regardless, it isn’t as satisfying as some require.

Brothers Bloom is NOT for everyone, even though it seems to be made with the kind of stylish charm that a Redford/Newman movie might have, it’s a subversive film.  There’s nothing important about it, but it’s determinedness to not do what is expected.  It should be the next great cult film, but I don’t know if that’s possible for any movie these days.

The best way to see this one would be at a Midnight Movie screening with an audience.  I hope I get the opportunity to see it that way in the future.

In the meantime the DVD presents the film beautifully.  There are about 30 minutes of deleted scenes and the best one is a nearly 8 minute scene with Robbie Coltrane delivering a superbly performed story monologue that never made it into the movie.   It’s a wonderful sequence but it would introduce an unneeded sub-plot in to the movie.   Some other deleted scenes are also fun to watch.    Instead of having a self-promoting Making of  featurette, a very interesting mini-documentary has been created that shows what a couple of the crew members did on the set.  It’s very well done and worth looking at.  There’s no narration, no self-promotion.   There is also an interesting feature length commentary with the director and not particularly vocal producer.

Highly recommended, The Brothers Bloom is an uneven imperfect movie but one of my favorite this year.  Enjoy.   

Recommended:
Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Good for Groups