From the time they were kids, bouncing from one foster home to another, brothers Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrien Brody) have gotten better and better as con men. After 25-plus years of pulling cons -- most of them quite successful -- Bloom has decided he's had enough. Years of conning under his belt, he's lost track of who he is and who he pretends to be. He tries to leave his partnership with Stephen, but his highly convincing brother Stephen pulls him back in for one job. Bloom agrees and takes charge in a con meant to dupe a quirky East Coast millionaire, Penelope (Rachel Weisz), who inherited millions of dollars. Traveling around the world, they intend to convince her that they're smugglers, and she stands to make some money herself if she goes along with the plan. It isn't so simple though, especially when Bloom starts to fall for Penelope, threatening to ruin Stephen's plan.
Quirky is one thing. The quirkiest of all directors, Wes Anderson, has shown that with his films like Moonrise Kingdom, Life Aquatic, Rushmore, Royal Tennenbaums among others. But with a quirky, funny, little-off movie, there's a fine line. You have to be a little off-center with your humor, but you can't be obvious about it. The biggest issue for this film from director Rian Johnson? It is quirky, it knows it, and it aggressively wants to let you know it's not a normal, everyday comedy caper. For a flick to work like this, it has to be almost effortless to be effective. When it's trying to be different, it just doesn't work. Unfortunate here because there's a lot of potential that is ultimately untapped.
As for the general quirky nature of the story, it is both good and bad. In most cases, it just goes too far. It's an incredibly stylish movie, filming in Romania, Belgrade, Greece, Montenegro and Prague. Visually, it's a treat to watch as the locations add another layer to the story. As for the style in terms of the characters and their wardrobe, here's where we meet a problem. Stephen and Bloom are gentleman thieves, always wearing suits, vests, ties and hats. It feels and looks like a throwback to French films from the 1960s. It's a style ripped out of the sky because the story takes place in modern times. Con men that stand out like a sore thumb? That makes sense. The look of the movie is great, but like everything else, it calls attention to itself in a big way, and for me at least, that's off-putting.
Of all the things though that bothers me the most, it was the characters that put me off. Johnson also scripted the movie, but it never finds that right balance between reality and uniquely appealing (and trust me, it's trying). The best thing to develop is the relationship between Brody's Bloom and Weisz's Penelope, two very different people who are drawn to each other because they're different. While everything else is aggressively in your face (WE'RE BEING QUIRKY! LAUGH DAMMIT!), this comes across naturally. Ruffalo is okay, but he's the face of that aggressive quirkiness as is Rinko Kikuchi as Bang Bang, the brothers' accomplice, a specialist in nitroglycerin and woman of few words. Also look for Robbie Coltrane as the Belgian, a member of their conning team, Maximilian Schell as Diamond Dog, the brothers' former mentor turned bitter enemy and Ricky Jay as the narrator. In a weird, out of left field cameo, look for Joseph Gordon-Levitt as a club patron. Seriously, blink and you'll miss it.
The all over the place quirky humor is one thing, but 'Bloom' can't even choose that correctly. Is it a quirky comedy? Is it a crime thriller? Is it a violent story of betrayals? Unfortunately, the last 45 minutes are one and all of those. Not that I was really enjoying it to begin with, but the story completely unravels in the last act. Twist after pointless twist, one after another until things become almost completely unrecognizable, much less able to follow. There are moments I liked a lot, especially Weisz's performance including her exhibition of all the hobbies she's picked up over the years (watch it HERE). A ton of talent assembled with a lot of potential, but ultimately, it just tries too hard to make us like the movie. Good musical score, stylish title cards, but it never goes anywhere. I wanted to like it, but it so desperately wants us to like the film that it's almost painful to watch at times.
The Brothers Bloom (2008): **/****
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