The Brothers Bloom [Blu-ray]

The Brothers Bloom [Blu-ray] Review

I see from Box Office Mojo that this wonderful creation from the mind of writer/director Rian Johnson made a disappointing .5m in (US) domestic business. That's a shame - this is a really enjoyable, smart, stylish movie that is a wicked blend of drama and comedy. It blows me away that this most inventive of films sprung from one man's fertile mind. My plan is to go back and rent Johnson's debut film, Brick, a favorite of many a movie-watcher.

Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz are three actors to whom I give the benefit of the doubt: I'll watch a movie they are in simply because they'd had the judgment to be in it. Mark Ruffalo, for example, isn't going to up suddenly and get in a film that has him clambering onto a hurtling asteroid to save the planet Earth. He's in quality projects. And Rachel Weisz is like Tina Fey: a sex symbol for those whose lips don't move when they read. She's never been more adorable than she is here - most notably in a hilarious sequence in which she displays to Brody all the things she's learned while holed up in her mansion over the years: languages; ping-pong; classical piano; rap (over-the-top goofy); break-dancing; karate; juggling (on stilts with chainsaws no less)...you name it. As Brody's character warns his scheming older brother (Ruffalo) a couple of times: "She knows _lots_ of things." Brody's character is meant to find Weisz's Penelope irresistible. And, she is. In spades.

How smart is Johnson's script? Smart enough where he could conjure up and act on this thought: "Gee, I'd really like to get Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) into my movie even though she speaks not a word of English." Thus, he writes the character of 'Bang-Bang.' I guarantee you he wrote that part thinking "I'm putting Rinko Kikuchi in my movie," not "Hmmm...who's going to play 'Bang-Bang'?". Her almost-wordless appearance - save a couple of epigrams and one karaoke routine - is a shtick that never gets old.

The deleted scenes on the DVD are well-worth watching with Johnson's commentary turned-on. It makes you more fully appreciate just how much thought he put into this under-appreciated gem.

The Brothers Bloom [Blu-ray] Overview

Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (summit) Release Date: 09/29/2009 Rating: Pg13

The Brothers Bloom [Blu-ray] Specifications

Writer-director Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom has a lot going for it, like an excellent cast doing good work, fabulous locations, a sumptuous look, and some interesting ideas in a genre that’s rife with possibilities. Somehow, though, the film is a whole that’s less than the sum of its parts. We meet siblings Stephen and Bloom, the products of numerous foster homes, at ages 13 and 10, respectively, as they’re starting to develop the skills and savvy that will help them become the full-blown scam-meisters they are when we meet up with them in their thirties (with Mark Ruffalo taking over as Stephen and Adrien Brody as Bloom). It seems Bloom wants to pack it in and live "an unwritten life" free of his brother’s elaborate schemes. But Stephen, who is now accompanied by a sidekick named Bang Bang (Babel’s Rinko Kikuchi, in an amusing, mostly silent performance as what Stephen refers to as "our fifth Beatle"), convinces his younger brother to take part in one last swindle, this one targeting the filthy rich Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz), who lives alone in what’s described as the biggest house on the eastern seaboard. Penelope’s an oddball, to say the least, having overcome a sickly childhood and become a master hobbyist whose skills rage from origami and playing six or eight instruments to riding a unicycle while balancing two chainsaws. Posing as antiquities dealers, the brothers pull her into a scheme that takes the trio all over the world (Greece, Prague, Montenegro, St. Petersburg, Mexico). Needless to say, complications ensue. Penelope turns out to be pretty good at the con game herself; what’s more, we know from the moment Stephen warns Bloom not to fall in love with her that he’ll quickly do exactly that. For sure, The Brothers Bloom has its high points, with surreal touches and amusing moments that help counterbalance its fairly arch overall tone. But in the end, it feels as if Johnson is trying too hard, sacrificing character for cleverness, and it’s the audience--even those who enjoy and are adept at sorting through the various clues and red herrings to figure out what’s supposedly really happening--that feels conned, or at least finds it difficult to care. --Sam Graham

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