The Brothers Bloom

Rian Johnson’s follow-up to his acclaimed debut, 2005’s Brick, The Brothers Bloom has been jam-packed with a whole host of effective elements, including uniformly strong performances and a vivid visual sensibility, and yet the film remains curiously uninvolving for the majority of its running time. This is despite an opening bit, narrated by Ricky Jay no less, that would seem to indicate a fun and light-hearted romp, as the title characters (Mark Ruffalo’s Stephen and Adrian Brody’s Bloom) are established as cunning siblings with a penchant for engaging in almost ridiculously complex con games. Johnson has infused the proceedings with a distinctly off-kilter directorial style that generally ensures that the whole thing never becomes a flat-out bore, though the filmmaker proves unable to transform either of the central characters into wholly compelling or engaging figures. Only Rachel Weisz, cast as the brothers’ naive and sweet target, is able to make any kind of affecting impact on the viewer, and it’s ultimately difficult not to wish Johnson had imbued Ruffalo and Brody’s characters with a similar amount of depth (Brody comes close, though his moroseness does grow tiresome after a while). Also problematic is the movie’s erratic structure; the story essentially reaches a point at which things seem to be wrapping up, and yet the whole thing goes on for an additional half hour or so (to call this section of the proceedings anti-climactic is an understatement). And while one can’t help but admire Johnson’s decision to eschew one of those crazy twist endings that one has come to expect from an endeavor of this sort, The Brothers Bloom ultimately comes off as a misfire that’s admittedly not entirely unwatchable.

** out of ****