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"The Brothers Bloom" have been practicing the arts of deception since childhood, spent in a series of foster homes all left worse off for their tenure.
Elder bro Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) is the brains of the outfit, concocting plots in which younger sibling Bloom (Adrien Brody) plays the romantic lead as they scam rich people out of their disposable cash.
- Starring: Mark Ruffalo, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz.
- Rating: PG-13 for violence, some sensuality and brief strong language.
- Web site: www.brothersbloom.com
Why is the younger bro called by their surname? I don't know. Nobody asks and nobody tells -- a recurring problem in this spotty, globe-trotting caper comedy about the last great job of the world's greatest fraternal con artists.
Suffice to say, the long-nosed, long-faced, long-suffering Bloom is tired of it all and wants out. He's looking for "an unwritten life" with something real. But Stephen is looking for the ultimate Big Con where "everyone gets what they want," and he prevails upon Bloom -- as always -- to participate.
The plan is for Bloom to woo eccentric heiress Penelope (Rachel Weisz) and, once she's hooked on him, to get her to bankroll a complex smuggling scheme that will take them to Greece, Montenegro, Prague and Russia -- on a Charade or Caprice or Arabesque or Sting or some combined derivative of those caper-forerunner films.
Hmm ... Do you think there's a chance Bloom might really fall in love with her? And, if so, do you think there might be a moment of truth when she eventually finds out?
Writer-director Rian Johnson's debut film "Brick" (2005) was a Sundance sensation. "The Brothers Bloom," his second, opens with an extended flashback sequence of the grifters as boys -- a little too precious, like much of the rest of the film, and its overall humor.
To the extent that it works, credit goes to hang-dog (or hurt-puppy) Brody -- the youngest Best Actor Oscar-winner for his performance in "The Pianist" -- and to Weisz, who won an Oscar of her own for "The Constant Gardener." The character she plays here is not just a fabulously wealthy, beautiful heiress but also an epileptic photographer and self-taught mistress-of-all-trades (juggler, harpist, unicyclist, martial artist). With her disposable Lamborghinis and quirky pauses, she is the cutest ditsy heroine in the world.
In supporting roles: Rinko Kikuchi (Oscar-nominated for "Babel") is occasionally funny in her mime role as Bang-Bang, the Bloom sibs' mute sidekick and explosives expert. Robbie Coltrane, who played the giant Hagrid in all four Harry Potter films, is funny as the creepy smuggler-in-chief.
But the real con job here was coaxing Maximilian Schell out of retirement to take a ridiculous, unexplained pseudo-Fagin role in which he's totally unrecognizable beneath heavy makeup and eye patch. Alas, such a waste.
Johnson provides lovely scenic shots of Prague and the assorted romantic Mediterranean venues, plus some nice comic touches here and there: A door decorated with gunpoint graffiti bangs when it opens. A camel casually walks behind the Bloom brothers during a heavy park-bench discussion. He also nicely understates the Jewish ethnicity of his main characters with costume touches and hints of klezmer music.
One keeps rooting for this picture to be good, or better than it is. It seems to have all the right ingredients, but there's something wrong with the recipe or baking time. The souffle never rises. There's too much going on in Johnson's head and script (detective genre plus Hickcockian noir plus magic realism), and one too many switcheroos in the climactic payoff.
Johnson doesn't quite get what he wants (or what we need), which is both a comedy and a melodrama. In the end, you can have your cake but must eat the reviews.
Opens today at AMC Loews and Manor.
