THE BROTHERS BLOOM (Rian Johnson 2009)
Rian Johnson: The Brothers Bloom (2009)
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THE RED AND THE BLACK: RUFFALO, BRODY, AND KIKUCHI
Review by Chris Knipp
Charm, appeal, nice clothes, not enough danger
Rian Johnson's debut feature Brick was appealingly offbeat. It applied the style of film noir to an American high school, with the always-interesting and audacious young actor Joseph Gordon-Levitt as the young private eye. However intricate -- perhaps contrived -- the action was in Brick there was a constant sense of something being discovered that was already "there." There's much to like about Rian Johnson's sophomore effort, an imaginative, character-based caper movie called The Brothers Bloom. But it sags in the middle because, for all its charm, it feels like an artificial construct from first to last. Sometimes it just gets a little too clever for its own good.
In a jaunty opening prologue, the brothers are shown as cute little tykes in dark suits and bowler hats being rejected by one foster family after another due to their misbehavior, which early on drifts into larceny. They con a group of well-off schoolchildren into paying them for the privilege of entering a magical cave, and though they get caught and have to return the money, they profit from a kickback deal with a dry cleaning establishment because the kids get coated with mud in the cave. This whole sequence has a nice nostalgic-movie-flashback look, though the idea that children's clothing goes to the dry cleaners is far-fetched.
Brothers Bloom follows the "one last job" premise. Jumping ahead to the present, we find the brothers have become thirty-something veterans of many jointly executed con jobs. Mastermind Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) lures back disenchanted younger brother Bloom (Adrien Brody) for an absolutely final, this-is-it caper involving ransom to be paid by a lonely, bored, very rich young woman called Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz).
Johnson used his budget on explosions and locations and elaborate stagings of things. There are quick run-throughs of earlier cons, and in a brief speeded- up sequence the film shows us Penelope's dazzling accomplishment level at her various "hobbies." To while away her time she has mastered ping pong, half a dozen musical instruments, martial arts, tumbling, juggling, pinhole cameras, and so on. For some reason she can't drive worth a damn and keeps wrecking a stream of new yellow Lamborghinis. As the last one crashes, a truck is already driving up to deliver the replacement. Johnson is reveling in a budget that allows him to wreck Lamborghinis, but most of all delighting in the artificiality of the movie game.
Bloom and Penelope meet cute when the brothers arrange for her to run him over with her current yellow Lamborghini. Once ensnared she's further lured into an elaborate gambit that takes them from New Jersey to Prague to the Mediterranean to Mexico and back. The trick is they make her think she's in on the con, not aware that she's the one being fleeced. Wouldn't you know it though, Bloom falls for her and that gums up the works.
Wiesz, who is English, really gets into her role and enjoys not only seeming totally American but alternately remote and childishly enthusiastic, as the character of the spoiled, inexperienced Penelope requires. She's so good even when she's jumping for joy it doesn't feel overdone.
One of the greatest pleasures of a movie that comes to seem increasingly over-elaborate and self-involved is observing Adrien Brody's tall, lean, fashion model body enveloped in a succession of immaculately tailored suits. He may have signed up for this movie expecting something on the level of his previous project, Wes Anderson's ingenious, stylish Darjeeling Limited where he was one of several eccentric brothers. Brody has an appealing, soulful presence. He does the soulful sad thing very well, but isn't capable of striking many other notes, which may explain why his soulful-sad wasting-away walk-through in Roman Polanski's The Pianist got him an Academy Award, but he's not lived up to the expectations that triumph aroused. The Pianist may be his one great role; but I like watching him model beautiful clothes.
Ruffalo is a funny kind of brother for Bloom, since he's always rumpled-looking. The best suits are wasted on him. So is the role of a con mastermind, because he is best at playing weak people. His high point may have been the no-account brother in Kenneth Lonergan's You Can Count on Me. He's an energetic, supple actor who can do more different roles than Brody, but he somehow lacks the wiliness and energy of an ingenious grifter.
The film has an fanciful Sixties flavor, and is adorned with eccentric characters. The Curator (Robbie Coltrane) is book expert who's Belgian (or may not be), Diamond Dog (Maximillian Schell) is an old mentor, and Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi) is a nearly mute Asian pal whose specialty is nitroglycerin. Bang Bang's explosions get out of hand, though again as with the car crashes it's hard to tell if this serves the plot or is simply Johnson playing around with his bigger budget.
Apart from the pleasure of Brody's outfits and how well he wears them there is further eye candy in the film's intense color, especially its rich reds and blacks.
With its intricate plot replete with classic Hollywood and also literary overtones, Brothers Bloom might profit from re-watchings, if you'd care to sit through the movie again. I wouldn't, because Johnson doesn't' get the fundamental aspects of con jobs right. Watch Stephen Frears' classic The Grifters to see what I mean. You've got to have actors who project meanness, energy and smarts (Angelica Houston and John Cusack fill the bill; Brody and Ruffalo don't). And you've got to convey a sense of real danger; this mostly doesn't. It's only when the real starts to overwhelm the make-believe that Johnson's pervasive sense of romance takes hold and the ultimate purpose of Stephen's contrivances -- to make his brother happy -- becomes touching.
