The Brothers Bloom

 

A flawed but enjoyable film from Brick director Rian Johnson, The Brothers Bloom tells the story of two crafty siblings (Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo) whose plans to swindle Rachel Weisz's character Penelope of her fortune are complicated when one of them becomes emotionally attached to the ditzy heiress. Johnson's gift for dialogue and his lively directorial style keeps the film briskly entertaining for a while, but the director eventually ties himself in knots by loading too many twists and cons onto his narrative. It gets harder to care the more unnecessarily convoluted the plot becomes and the ending, when it finally arrives, is a mess. Still, there is a great deal to enjoy here, with Johnson pulling off a number of individually impressive sequences (including the lovely introduction) and drawing excellent performances from his actors. Brody and Ruffalo are perfectly cast as the titular brothers, but the film is stolen by its female element, with both Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi on fine comic form.