When your first feature is an absolute gem like Brick, the deck is stacked rather high for your follow-up. Fans will fear that your mastery of dialogue, your meticulous attention to character detail, were flukes. That you, Rian Johnson, are nothing but a con artist. But the truth is, you are. And one of the highest caliber.
Trailers and reviews will tell you The Brothers Bloom is a movie about two brothers who make a fantastic living conning the rich out of their dough. One brother, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo), loves this. The other, Bloom (Adrien Brody), hates it. In living a life of cons, he’s swindled himself out of happiness. Like any good movie grifter, Bloom wants out. Like any good movie grifter, a woman gives him a reason to stay for one last gig. She is Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a rich shut-in who, as she tells Bloom, collects hobbies: juggling, karate, breakdancing, ping pong, even rapping. She has enough money to not care what happens to it. Stealing it should be a piece of cake.
Still think this is a con man movie? Then you’ve been fooled. The Brothers Bloom is about stories. Isn’t telling a good tale, about fake characters doing fake things to achieve fake goals, just telling a good lie? This is a film about lying, and the skill it takes to do it well. A movie about the biggest fake of all: movies. If I tell you that Orson Welles’ F For Fake is one of Rian Johnson’s favorite films, you’ll understand why. If this is the first movie you’ve ever seen, you will love it. The cons, less elaborate than Danny Ocean’s, are twice as thrilling, in locales twice as exotic. Johnson and Brick DP Steve Yedlin’s visuals captivate as much as the story does, right down to the beautiful actors that grace the screen. Weisz, Brody and Ruffalo are at their absolute best, breathing vibrant life into quirky, never over-the-top characters. Weisz had a ball making this film and it shows, from Penelope’s beaming smile to her childlike energy. She is open to anything, including falling in love with Bloom. The question posed, and one Johnson leaves for us to answer, is what they love more: each other, or the fun they have together. Their love, like everything in this film, cannot be trusted. Isn’t this the case for any good con?
Those who have seen a movie other than The Brothers Bloom will notice how masterfully Johnson plays with genre expectations. Characters call attention to tired con clichés – Stephen reminds Penelope that only movie thieves and Russians use suitcases to deliver money. Johnson’s characters are informed by con movies as much as they are a part of one. Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), the team’s mysterious third member and demolitions expert, never speaks. She’s seen enough movies to know no one likes a gabby bomb expert. Thankfully, all of the script’s nudges and winks are barely noticeable, and few and far between. Less secret are Johnson’s skillful cinematic talents. Every frame is the child of hard work and loving detail. Screenwriting buffs will rejoice that “Show, don’t tell” is the order of the day here. What little exposition there is is woven between captivating visuals. Expert card tricks and covert apple-stealing missions replace monologues. Johnson’s dialogue is noticeably pared down from Brick’s tongue twisters, but revealing nonetheless. In working out his issues with the sleight-of-hand that is filmmaking, Johnson has crafted a beautiful movie about living: If the dream is better than reality, can we be blamed for wanting to live the former? This is Stephen’s mantra. Even Bloom, longing for “an unwritten life,” comes to understand the joy of living by your own pen, writing not the story his brother wants, but a tale all his own.
Auteur theory tells us every director has his trademark – Tarantino’s dialogue, Antonioni’s malaise, Scorsese’s swish pans, Fellini’s circuses. While Johnson has a few films to go before reaching their levels, his defining characteristic is clear: Quality. I call him a con artist because he is a master storyteller. He tells lies that we love to hear. Cutter says it best in The Prestige: We want to be fooled. I doubt another movie this year will fool me as magnificently as The Brothers Bloom.
Clarence Hammond
© Cinephile Magazine, 2009