The Brothers Bloom are con men. They have been since they were children. Stephen, the elder, devises elaborate schemes to steal people’s money, while Bloom, the younger, earns the trust of their marks. At this point, they’re so successful that they’re world famous, and have a frequent accomplice, the stoic explosives expert Bang Bang. Despite all this, Bloom is tired of the con life, and wants to retire, but Stephen convinces him to stay on for one last job; the seduction and robbery of sheltered heiress Penelope Stamp. Bloom will befriend her, invite her on a cruise with him, and then trick her into giving away her fortune. But what will happen when Bloom actually winds up developing feelings for the highly quirky Penelope? Watch the movie and find out.
Like the rest of Rian Johnson’s films, The Brothers Bloom received critical acclaim upon its release. Unlike his other films, however, it flopped hard at the box office, only recouping $5 million from a $20 million budget. And having finally seen the movie, I can kind of understand why. This is easily his most quirky picture, and not in a good way. It’s quirky in a way that’s distracting. The film opens with a montage showing the main characters’ childhoods, complete with a rhyming voice-over. It features little kids wearing bowler hats and pin-striped suits, lines like, “They were the they, all well-loved, rooted, happy as you please,” and a loud, brassy jazz score. This montage is a perfect encapsulation of the film’s style and sensibilities. Whether or not you like the movie really depends on whether or not you enjoy this montage. And the quirkiness is only part of the problem. See, style isn’t inherently a bad thing. It allows you to distinguish your work from that of other people. And this film definitely does feel different from Matchstick Men, Dirty Rotten Scoundrels, and all the other con movies I’ve seen. But what it boasts in style it lacks in investment. What I mean by that is, in all of Rian Johnson’s other movies, the protagonists have very personal reasons for doing what they’re doing, and there are real stakes, which gets you more invested in their stories. In Brick, Brendan wants to find out who killed the girl he loved. In Looper, young Joe wants to avoid getting whacked by the mob, and old Joe wants revenge for his wife’s murder. All of these motivations are clear and simple. And we understand why it matters that they succeed. They’ll die, they’ll lose someone they care about, etc. In The Brothers Bloom, there’s no real reason for them to pull this con. They’re not desperate for money. They don’t have people coming after them. Stephen just sort of wants to. And while Bloom is reluctant at first, it doesn’t really take much to convince him. As a result, you wind up caring less about these characters, and feel less invested in the movie as a whole.
Now, to be fair, the movie isn’t entirely devoid of merit. The colorful cinematography is sumptuous to look at, the 40s-style costumes are gorgeous, and there are some fun twists along the way. For instance, the film features a clever subversion of the meet-cute. In most movies, the characters bump into each other. In this film, Bloom tries to do that with Penelope, but rather than him getting hurt, and her helping him, as they planned, he falls down, which causes her to have an epileptic seizure, and so now he has to take her to the hospital. There’s a funny montage where you get to see all of Penelope’s hobbies, including playing various instruments, martial arts, break dancing and juggling chainsaws. That one got a genuine chuckle out of me. The performances are also quite good. Mostly. Mark Ruffalo and Adrian Brody work as the titular characters, with Ruffalo playing the gung-ho Stephen, and Brody acting as the reluctant Bloom. Rachel Weisz, whom plays Penelope, however, was more of a mixed bag for me. While in theory she does have a unique personality and traits, Weisz delivers her lines in a quiet, monotone manner that honestly made me tired. Every time she appeared on screen, I wanted to fall asleep, which isn’t good, since she’s probably the second most important character. She’s not the one I want to talk about, though.
Rinko Kikuchi plays Bang Bang, Stephen’s love-interest, and an explosives expert. I think she says a total of three words in this movie, one of them being “fuck.” On the one hand, having a Japanese woman play a quiet, mysterious character who doesn’t appear to know much English is super cliche. On the other hand, she’s easily the most fun person in the entire movie. I absolutely adore her in this picture. She may not say much, but you can tell a ton about her personality just from her body language, facial expressions, and outfits, which feature tons of fur coats, bowler hats, leather gloves, and scarves. The way she rolls her eyes, disinterestedly flicks a cigarette, or smacks Stephen whenever he says something off-color conveys more than any line of dialogue could. All praise should go to Miss Kikuchi for making this role so fun, but watching her character in this film made me realize how good Rian Johnson is at conveying and generating empathy for characters without dialogue. In three of his movies, this, Looper and The Last Jedi, he has characters who don’t speak, and yet you still care for them a lot. You feel terrible when Paige Tico and Old Joe’s wife die. You can’t wait to see Bang Bang whenever she’s onscreen. And this all comes from the fact that Johnson writes and directs these characters in such a way that you know who they are and what they want without needing any dialogue. Very few directors can make you understand who everyone is just with visuals—Bong Joon-ho is the only other filmmaker I can think of—and I do believe that quality of this picture should be praised.
So, in the end, I do understand why The Brothers Bloom is the black sheep of Rian Johnson’s filmography. It’s distractingly quirky, one of the lead performances is boring, and it lacks the strong narrative drive and stakes to keep you invested. At the same time, it’s not terrible. If you like con movies, the actors, or Johnson, you should be able to get some enjoyment out of it. Make of this what you will.
liusviews 