The Brothers Bloom

JP Liz

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0844286/

Looks like its finally getting a cinema release

Trailer

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yHWIRaiZOnQ

Academy Award winner Rachel Weisz (The Constant Gardener), Academy Award winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist), Mark Ruffalo (Zodiac), and Academy Award nominee Rinko Kikuchi (Babel) star in The Brothers Bloom, a globe-trotting comedy about the last great adventure of the worlds best con men from Rian Johnson (Brick).

Synopsis

Welcome to the world of The Brothers Bloom, where deception is an art and nothing is as it seems. The brothers have perfected the art of swindling fortunes through years of fraternal teamwork. Now theyve decided to take on one last spectacular job—luring a beautiful and eccentric heiress into an elaborate plot that takes them around the world. For as long as they can remember, the Brothers Bloom have had only each other to depend on. From their childhood in a long series of gloomy foster homes to their highflying lives as international con artists, Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrien Brody) have shared everything. Stephen brilliantly concocts intricate stories that the brothers live out, but hes still searching for the perfect con, the one where everyone gets what they want. Meanwhile, Bloom yearns for an unwritten life—a real adventure, one not dreamed up by his old brother. Eager to retire, Bloom agrees to take part in one last grand scam. He insinuates himself into the life of Penelope (Rachel Wiesz), a bored, single New Jersey heiress. When a genuine romance begins to blossom between them, he is reluctant to exploit her naiveté, but Penelope has already taken the bait: She impulsively joins Bloom, Stephen and their associate, a sexy Japanese explosives expert named Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi), on an ocean liner to Greece. Penelope is convinced shes happened upon the adventure of a lifetime and offers to bankroll a million dollar deal. As the quartet makes their way from Athens to Prague to Mexico to St. Petersburg, Penelope quickly becomes addicted to the illicit thrills. But as Stephens elaborate web of deceit pulls tighter, Bloom begins to wonder if his brother has devised the most dangerous con of his life.

JP Liz V1

Looks like this could finally be out here in June

MiloYossarian

Managed to see it. For a while it's like the best film ever, but it's hard to keep up that level of awesome for a whole movie. What I mean is, it's the kind of film that can make you feel warm on the inside. I think it loses the run of itself in the third act. But it's still really, really, really good.

grizzly

I saw this is getting a release here tomorrow, but it was first out in '08. Is this a rerelease? Has anyone seen it?

johnny_ultimate

Not a re-release, has just been an age trying to get the rights / distribution deals in place for over here apparently. Been meaning to see it for a while, I'm in the 'loved Brick' camp so have been looking forward to more Johnson material since! Brothers Bloom is an IFI exclusive I think?

Renn

Saw it last year, it's okay (probably being a little bit generous there) but I wouldn't be returning to it any time soon. From what I remember it was a little bit too quirky for its own good.

qwertplaywert

Weisz and Ruffalo are fantastic as always, but the whole thing just feels abit flat, in comparison to Brick.

qwertplaywert

Bit off topic, but the episode of Breaking Bad I just watched[season 3 episode 11] turned out to be directed by Rian Johnson!

crybaby

Way way too long and far too quirky for its own good.

Honestly I can barely remember the story now something about con men and brothers and....no I have forgotten

bnt

JP Liz V1 wrote: »

Looks like this could finally be out here in June

In time for Bloomsday, perhaps? I'm guessing that the writers have at least tried reading Joyce's Ulysses ... :cool:

PS: it's on at the IFI, starting today.

S.M.B.

Saw the already and liked it without been blown away. Rian Johnson was doing a Q&A at a showing down the road the other day. Probably should have went.

Nichololas

Some people are going to be disappointed when they watch this, as it's more an introspective musings wrapped in con-artists clothes film than a straight-up con/heist film. Ruffalo is (as usual) excellent, Brody fits the role and plays it well. My opinion of Rachel Weisz' performance is wavering, I'm not a huge fan so I'm not sure if thats my bias showing through. As someone's already said it kind of looses the run of itself in the final third - it does wrap up nicely but seemed a little rushed in comparison to the rest of the movie.

That said I really liked this movie, 4/5

bnt wrote: »

In time for Bloomsday, perhaps? I'm guessing that the writers have at least tried reading Joyce's Ulysses ... :cool:

There's just the one writer (Rian Johnson), I'm pretty sure the main characters are named for Stephen Dedalus and Leopold Bloom, yeah. Besides that there's a ton of references to literature through out the movie.

johnny_ultimate

I must say I enjoyed this. What I like about Rian Johnson's two films so far are how aware of themselves they are, and yet I can easily see this being a major weakness for others. It's a manipulated film (like all non-documentaries ultimately are), one which rejects reality to make a point about the nature of fiction itself. Sounds dull, but personally I thought it was good fun too

(plenty of fun sight gags like the one-legged cat, the tower getting blown up, and Penelope crawling through the vents)

. Like Brick, the dialogue is stylised and removed from reality, but the major theme of the film is about the weird contrast between reality and fiction.

The little recurring motifs and events manipulated by Stephen were really clever I thought, showing how almost subconsciously people's emotions can be toyed with to reach the conclusion he desired

. The soundtrack was endearingly jaunty too

I'd agree thought that it seems a bit stretched out towards the end, and while the end worked well IMO there was a bit too much jumping about in the third act for the most part. Overall, quirky, strange and a little convoluted, and not as impressive as Brick, but a pleasantly different and thoughtful subversion of the 'heist' movie.