A Bustling, Bloomin’ Adventure

Newbie writer and director Rian Johnson made himself a bit of a cult legend with his debut film Brick, a fascinating film noir set in a high school. Following it up was going to be difficult. But his quirky, fun, delightful, entertaining, and clever The Brothers Bloom does such a good job of capturing the spirit of the zany heist that you might as well forget about the somewhat elusive Brick.

Rian has his cast partially to thank for that. Indie darling Mark Ruffalo hits all the right notes as the cocky conman and mastermind, Stephen Bloom, who plans out his intricate cons as a poet pens his verses always casting his brother as the hero. Playing the reluctant conman, anti-hero, and younger brother, known only as Bloom, is Adrien Brody whose quiet charm is always a treat.

Stephen has been writing Bloom’s life since childhood when they first conned the children in podunk town – a deliciously mischievous, precocious, and humorous scene that opens the film’s misadventures. When young Stephen Bloom (Max Records) calls the town children “playground bourgeoisie” you know you’re in for a treat.

Rounding out the conning trio is an assassin named Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi) who doesn’t speak, but hardly needs to. Ms. Kikuchi doesn’t require dialogue to steal a scene.

But the biggest scene stealer of them all is Rachel Weisz as the doe-eyed mark, Penelope, a rich New Jersey heiress whose spent her whole life sheltered. And when I say sheltered, I mean sheltered. She spent her entire childhood indoors, thanks to an unlucky mishap at the doctor’s when she was young, has very few social graces, knows a lot of useless and not so useless skills, and quite possibly has never been kissed. And best of all, she thinks a little danger might suit her and knows that Bloom will suit her even better.

So off the conmen, their mark, and their silent nuclear weapon expert go on a ship called the Fidele, to run into trouble across Europe and Mexico. As Stephen’s con hits some road bumps and Bloom and Penelope find love in a train car, the conmen disguised as smugglers disguised as antique dealers into The Curator, an accomplice of the Brothers Bloom played to pitch-perfect hilarity by Robbie Coltrane as well as the Brothers’ old Russian teacher, Diamond Dog (Maximilian Schell). Mayhem and hilarity ensues.

The film is chock full of laugh out loud moments, twists, turns, tricks, and big reveals. It’s got clever dialogue, witty one-liners, and mysterious escapes. It’s an adventure story in the ilk of The Italian Job (the original, not the Mark Walberg thing) and Ocean’s Eleven, a crime caper full of lush foreign landscapes, rail ride romance, exploding towers, and aces up your sleeve. It’s an inspired con – most of all because you won’t know whose being conned ‘til the end.

But more than a fun-filled adventure, where Johnson’s film succeeds is in its smarts. Rian certainly knows his films and pays loving homage to them, from the sun streaming through the windows on a thoughtful criminal in a tilted fedora to the Wes Anderson-like opening montage. It’s full of thoughtful foreshadowing and carefully-placed details. It’s also one big literary exercise. It’s a retelling of James Joyce’s iconic Ulysses with the crafty, intellectual writer Stephen (drop the Daedalus), the lost, lonely Bloom (drop the Leopold), and the adventure-seeking, ever-waiting Penelope (Bloom pending). Reimagining Ulysses is no easy task – hell, reading Ulysses is no easy task – but Rian Johnson jumps right in and never looks back, and it’s that kind of talent that makes a great movie.

What are you waiting for? Adventure beckons.