Hey, everyone. ”Moriarty” here. Verrrrrrrry curious about this one. The script was a canny little game of chess, and the cast is a knock-out. I liked BRICK quite a bit, and I hope this marks a step forward for this idiosyncratic young writer/director. I know it screened on Thursday night, and we got in two reactions to the screening. Here’s the first...
Hello Harry, I've sent scoops in in the past but never had anything get through maybe this will be the one. Last night in Sherman Oaks, CA I saw what we were told was the first test screening for Rian Johnson's new film 'The Brothers Bloom', the story revolves around 2 orphaned brothers who after being tossed from foster home to foster home become the best and most highly respected con men in the world, one brother Bloom (Brody) is sick of it and wants something 'real' instead of being whatever character his brother's wrote for him in the particular con and his brother likes to write cons where 'everybody involved in the con gets what the want in the end' with lots of symbolism and thematic choices (like phonetic dialogue and framing/placement to trigger memories). I don't want to give away any of the plot (if your curious the script isn't that hard to find, maybe I shouldn't say that though) and I'll do my best to just keep it to just this one; during the opening sequence introducing the brothers bloom, the worlds greatest con man Ricky Jay is the narrator which you know isn't the least obvious choice in the world but definitely a fun surprise and kind creates a bridge for this con story to the David Mamet ones and maybe I'm wrong but it also feels like it throws back to some Wes Anderson films. There's isn't really any attempt to hide the influences and there's even a mention of the Confidence Man in the dialogue (well rather when Stephen is referencing it in one of the cons, so you have Rian Johnson writing a thematic symbolic con story about a con artist who thematic symbolic con stories, fun) There's lots of background gags and eccentricities weaved throughout the story that lead to some unexpected laughs and there are lots of unexpected twists, avoiding some cliches which is nice. I was expecting a rehash of Dirty Rotten Scoundrels (I dont know why) but luckily (though I love that movie) it was not. You know you can expect very good performances from Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo and none of them disappoint (watching Ruffalo and Brody work against each other is great, they have so many character nuances) Adrien Brody carries the film but all the characters (the 4 main ones with a couple side characters) feel like they have the same amount of weight story wise with the two minor characters (Dimaond Dog and the Curator) having interesting pieces of the film to inhabit. My favorite thing about the film was Rinku Kikuchi who plays Bang-Bang, a sort of 'quiet Jack of a lot of trades' with Bloom and Stephen, its probably the coolest character she'll ever play and she doesn't talk the whole movie I'm not sure if thats considered a spoiler but just in case. The film does still need work though, it feels kinda long but the story isn't boring by any means, you can tell there's the usual first screening fat that needs to go, I forget how long it was I think around 2 hours I had to leave my phone in the car and I didn't go straight back afterwards so I'm not sure. I'm not sure if its the final soundtrack (apparently Riann's cousin Nathan is doing this one like the last one) but what I heard I really liked. I know lots of people loved Brick and this was nothing like that really except maybe interesting visual composition but the dialogue is obviously now changed, I remember that was the first thing people talked about when referring to Brick and it did help that story (at least I think so) and there was only one instance of weird dialogue in this where a young Stephen uses 'bourgeoisies' it kind of jumps out and makes you think if the kid would use that word but other than that it flows well...also one scene with Weiz on the a train drinking seems out of place but I hope they don't cut it, it's pretty hilarious. If you use this please call me Vodkahandstand
I think I’d like to see a Vodka handstand. Although I question the after-effects on the stomach. Anyway, here’s a second review, which seems to still be working out what the guy thought of what he saw:
Moriarty, I had to race home as fast as I could to tell you about a movie I saw called THE BROTHERS BLOOM, the 2nd movie from Rian Johnson, who brought us a great first effort, BRICK. Without giving anything away (besides Rachel Weisz's bare ass) this is not a con movie for guys. It's for girls. This isn't a hard edged con movie. This is a light, frothy, whimsical con movie. Lots of clever non-sequitors that make you think, "How delightful!" which earn the audience's trust early so that it delays the inevitable real problem here. There's no actual con. It's a film ABOUT cons, cons are talked about, and certainly there is a fun con at the beginning of the movie to set up that there will be cons later on since it's a con movie, but then the great big con never happens! No con! ...unless you count that you are seeing a con movie without an actual con, which is like a con Rian might have hatched with his producers. "Okay, we're making a movie that looks like a con movie. It's not, though. Bang. 20 million dollars opening weekend." Now, we know Rian can do a real con movie. He demonstrated serious skill with BRICK. But he chose not to do that here. That's not to say he didn't include the things you might expect, like expensive sports cars, guys with Belgium-French accents, exotic locales, and an antagonist with an eye patch; it's just that we don't know what the hell all these things are doing in the movie besides looking like they obviously belong there, since after all....this is a con movie. And that's fine. Rian is in the kitchen, mixing ingredients. Noir, high school. Con movie, European romance. What holds it all together is Rachel Weisz. Without this extravagently gorgeous and charismatic woman, I'm not sure if this could remotely look like a competently told story. Originally this was called PENELOPE. After seeing this film that makes more sense to me than BROTHERS BLOOM. Thanks for your time.
