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The Brothers Bloom Director: Rian Johnson Genre: Comedy Adventure Cast: Rachel Weisz, Adrienne Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi, Robbie Coltrane, and Maximilian Schell. Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrian Brody) are orphans who decide the best way to get along in life is to do a confidence scam. Their first con (acted by younger actors) is when they are thirteen and ten, living in an upper middle class society that does not include them. Bloom pines for a young girl that would make his life complete. Stephen designs the scam and Bloom sells it to the local kids, and collects the money. Each of the children donates two dollars to find the cave where some strange monster lives. Stephen takes care of the cave set up and makes sure they can get away. The money is collected and Bloom leads the children to the cave, and they chase a vanishing light into the darkness and fall into the prepared mud hole. While the children feel the adventure worth it, their parents have a different view, and the Brothers Bloom are forced to return the cash. They are expelled from their foster home and returned, although not without an offset, disclosed as they are leaving. Bloom loses the girl forever, which stays with him for a long time. Jump forward to adulthood, and the brothers have conned a lot of people and developed a more complex style. We’re told they were mentored by Diamond Dog (DD, Maximilian Schell) a master con artist, who they no longer have, nor want contact with. They have added a female accomplice, Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), a Japanese woman with a penchant for silence. She expresses herself by blowing things up. The trio finds a mark, for Bloom is determined to leave the business, and Stephen has agreed, if he works the one last scam. The mark is a rich young woman, Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a lonely New Jersey heiress with a hobby of wrecking a yellow Lamborghini, or rather a whole series of them. So the con begins, with Bloom riding a small bicycle into the path of Penelope’s speeding car on her estate. The collision is minor, but Penelope manages to turn it into a disaster by driving over a drop off as she attempts to turn the car around. Bloom accompanies her to the hospital and waits by her bed until she recovers consciousness. They return to her mansion and Bloom gets to know the obsessive woman, who takes on a hobby until she masters it and then moves on. They become friends, but Bloom cannot stay as he is off the Greece on a small cruise ship the next day. On the dock, Bloom is sure he needed more time to set the hook: Penelope will not arrive. At the last moment, she does, with her luggage in the boot of her slightly damaged car (not sure if it was from the last accident or a new one), and the pair, or trio with the mark, set off for adventure. On the ship, Penelope is approached by the mysterious Curator (Robbie Coltrane) who advises her to be aware, as the brothers are smugglers and not to be trusted. She confronts them and it is admitted they are on the trail of an ancient book, which they will buy and re-sell to more than double their money. But they still do not have the seed money required to make the deal. Penelope is seduced by the idea of being a smuggler of antiquities. She buys into the operation, as money is not a concern she has, but only if she is included in the operation. The brothers hesitantly accept. When they reach Greece, the brothers don’t want to proceed, but Penelope is ready to head for Prague, and to buy the book from the Curator. She will complete the deal whether or not the others come with her. They all travel to Prague, Penelope pays off the Curator before the deal and he disappears. Here the story gets complicated, with DD (Diamond Dog) coming onto the scene, and the group planning to steal the book, anyway. Plans are made and all goes badly. The book is found to be a fake, Stephen gets kidnapped, and perhaps killed, Bang Bang gets blown up in her car, and Bloom takes off to his hiding place in Majorca, where he drowns his sorrow in drink. But this is not the way the movie ends. It doesn’t matter how the story ends. We are taken along on this tale as viewers only. We never become a part of the story, nor do we see ourselves as portrayed in it. We’re audience to a finely crafted presentation that we never forget is an entertaining movie. We may like the actors, although I think that Ruffalo might make the better romantic Bloom, and Brody the better studious detail oriented Stephen. Weisz makes a suitable Penelope, but the one who steals the show is Rinko Kikuchi, in the relatively minor role of Bang Bang. Her performance makes much of the movie viewable and interesting. Without her, it might still be pleasant to view, but more likely a direct-to-video movie. See this movie as well-crafted entertainment, but nothing more. It has no social moral or greater objective. It will show some nice scenery and architecture, tastefully filmed and presented with professional acting. It’s fun, and when it is over, the audience returns to their lives, none the richer than having seen a nice movie, perhaps with someone they care about. |