The Brothers Bloom

There's a new con man in town, warns Kimberly Gadette. Writer/director Rian Johnson may just end up stealing your heart.

Hmmm…two con men and an heiress. Is this some rehash of 1988's Dirty Rotten Scoundrels? Nope, not at all. Part caper, part fable, this film is its own marvelously poetic animal, at turns literary, screwball, fantastical, philosophical and, at its heart, a sly meditation on the depths of love.

We're first treated to a jewel of a seven-minute opening (viewable in its entirety on the movie's website). Smacking of Mark Twain's Tom Sawyer, it sets up tone, theme and the indelible characteristics of the two brothers Bloom, orphans who can't keep a foster home's roof over their heads to save their souls. At 13, Stephen is the mastermind, a storyteller with a lust for profitable, ergo happy, endings. Three years his junior, Bloom (we never do get a first name) is a starry-eyed romantic, wanting to believe in true love and an unwritten life. Unwritten by Stephen, that is. He is the star of Stephen's heists but, like an actor, yearns to live free from the constraints of the playwright. Yet it is only through the playwright that he springs to life. A conundrum if ever there was one.

After the opening credits, and the first of many titles announcing time and place (a la The Sting), we meet up with the adult Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrien Brody). They're completing the last act of an elaborate heist, replete with burning castles, loaded pistols and a good deal of blood. Fake blood. Once the con has ended, the usual routine ensues: Bloom attempts to walk away while Stephen begs him to stay, to do one last job, for one last time. He's got a plan that will separate a reclusive New Jersey heiress from her money, but he can't pull it off without his brother.

Hence a fascinating point in filmmaker Rian Johnson's script: as a superlative grifter, Stephen employs the greatest con of all. The con of love. He admits that he only writes for Bloom in order to make Bloom happy. Is it true, or is it just another con? Subsequently, to catch the heiress Penelope (Rachel Weisz), Bloom has to hint of his possible attraction to her. Again, using the con of love. And when he does indeed romance her, is it a deceit or is it real? Since he's been acting all his life, how will he know?

We know, because director Johnson lets us in on the minutiae that gives Bloom's heart away: his study of Penelope's teeth marks on a discarded rose stem; his sketching of her face in secret, when no one's looking.

It's not just Bloom's world that we get to see in close-up. Johnson's film unveils an old world/new world mix, a marvelous mélange of styles. It's one part Agatha Christie, with 1920s ocean liners and 1940s mahogany-paneled trains, traveling to faraway lands at a leisurely pace. It's one part wacky opulence, with an heiress who hasn't a clue how to dress herself, who crashes canary-colored Lamborghinis with daily regularity. And it's one part modern sass, as represented in the character of Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), the brothers' munitions expert who isn't as expert as she thinks.

As for the actors, Adrien Brody's melancholy Bloom breaks your heart. Mark Ruffalo surprises with his easy confidence, the ultimate showman. But it is Rachel Weisz' performance that astonishes beyond compare. Playing a woman who's never ventured out into the real world, her wide-eyed introduction to life is utterly delicious. The first time she's given a compliment, she stares, rigid, mute, unable to process the concept. The first time she kisses a man, she's overcome – and we experience every surprised squeal, moan and writhe right along with her. Blissfully unaware of social convention, she turns her back on her visitor in the hospital room, completely ignorant of the fact that her posterior is on display. Not that she'd necessarily care.

Amazing in that this is only his second film, filmmaker Johnson affects a perfectly fluid merge between script and direction, giving us a sense of a true auteur who not only sees the vision in his head, but who unerringly knows how to convey that vision to us. And his words! Johnson's script virtually floats, the sparkling words bubbling out at us with such frequency that we yearn to put the film on pause…just to snatch an extra second in order to appreciate the language. A line like "A photograph is a lie about a lie" could make your head spin for days.

This is not a film to be seen. It is to be savored.

Rating on a scale of 5 consummate con men: 4

Release date: US: March 20, 2009; UK: TBA
Directed by: Rian Johnson
Written by: Rian Johnson
Cast: Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell
Rating: US = PG-13; UK = TBD
Running time: 113 minutes