The Brothers Bloom opened this years Independent Film Festival of Boston. It's also the most fun film I've seen this year (out of 91!). It's written and directed by Rian Johnson, who's previously made just one film, Brick. Brick was a high school film crossed with a crime noir. This is a con crossed with a farce, maybe a sixties farce crossed with a bit of Wes Anderson. But Wes Anderson only wishes he could make films this fun.
Mark Ruffalo plays Stephen and Adrien Brody plays his younger brother Bloom. They've been con artists since their foster home childhood and the film opens with the wonderful story of their first larceny, perfectly setting up the story. As adults they are teamed up with Bang Bang, a demolitions expert who's almost silent and is a background sight gag in almost every scene. She's played by Rinko Kikuchi who got a best supporting actress nomination for Babel. I was reminded of Paul's grandfather in A Hard Day's Night, only with explosives. Bloom wants to quit the business but of course there is one last con. The mark is Penelope Stamp a heiress raised practically alone in her mansion who collects hobbies. She's played wonderfully by Rachel Weisz, who reminded me of Ally Sheedy's character in The Breakfast Club.
I won't talk about the plot, but Stephen believes the perfect con is one where everyone gets what he or she wants. I don't think I was fooled, though it's possible I was, but it didn't matter, I was riveted to the final scene and thought it payed off. My only complaint was that I missed some dialog because I was laughing so hard at the sight gags.
Supporting characters are played by the great Robbie Coltrane and Maximillian Schell and the beginning is narrated by Ricky Jay.
Bang Bang was hilarious In virtually every scene she was in, but she had almost no lines. Some fun lines by others:
Stephen: That's my new favorite camel
Bloom: Eat your waffles fat man
Penelope: I'm an epileptic photographer.
Penelope: I think your constipated...in your fucking soul
Stephen: I don't like to simplistically vilify a whole country, but Mexico's a horrible place.
Go see this film. IMDb says it gets a limited US release on May 15, and a wider one on May 29th.
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