Hey, folks. Capone in Chicago here.

Movies about "the big con" are so tough to get right, nearly impossible in my estimation. For many years after seeing THE STING, I didn't think any filmmaker could ever make a decent film about con artists, let along a better one that that masterpiece. But then David Mamet's HOUSE OF GAMES came along, and I actually had to watch that one three times just to make certain my initial reactions were sound. Mamet combined a low-key, but still wildly interesting bit of trickery and combined it with dialogue that like it was written by aliens who had managed to capture human speech patterns to perfection without filtering that knowledge through a screenwriting/playwriting class. I treasure both of those films, as well as the other films in Mamet's con collection, including THE SPANISH PRISONER. But so few of these kinds of films work because you're always looking for the old switcheroo. Still, every so often, a stray film bursts through and surprises. Look at the phenomenal Argentina film NINE QUEENS; hell, you could even look to Tony Gilroy's DUPLICITY from a few weeks ago. Or you find works like THE GRIFTERS or MATCHSTICK MEN, which don't feature particularly great cons, but the characters are so interesting that it makes up for any shortcomings in the story. Then we have OCEAN'S ELEVEN, TWELVE, and THIRTEEN, which kind of exits in a glam world of their own.

What writer-director Rian Johnson has done with his second film THE BROTHERS BLOOM (after the astonishing high school noir BRICK) has created a world both the con and the characters are equally fascinating, so much so that you're not always sure where one ends and the other begins. Is Adrian Brody's Bloom really all that interesting a guy, or is that part of a character that he must play to pull off a major con concocted and sketched out by his brother Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) to rip off insanely rich heiress Penelope (Rachel Weisz, who has never been better)? Johnson doesn't just want to make a bait-and-switch heist film, or a great character study movie (he does both, by the way), but he also wants to comment on the practice of being someone you are not all the time. When I first saw the film, I thought it was his sly way of poking fun at actors who often say they lose themselves in a role. Well, what if that's true? What if Bloom gets so involved in the false lives he's portraying that he completely forgets what it's like to live an unscripted life? Or does such a life even exist?

As much fun and adventure as these three seem to have pulling off cons together all over the world (with the help of a mute Japanese explosives expert named Bang Bang (Oscar-nominee Rinko Kikuchi from BABEL). As if THE BROTHERS BLOOM weren't enough of a good thing, the film also is a melancholy love story between Bloom and Penelope. Weisz plays Penelope as a woman without much of an identity either. She is a collector of other people's hobbies. She discovers a new hobby, learns it, perfects it, grows bored with it, and moves on. She lives in the castle-like mansion that seems more like a prison for a woman who seems capable of passion but rarely lets it free. Her character manages to be funny and sad at the same time, and I spent most of the film not only wanted to stare at her constantly but also give her a big hug.

But much like BRICK, what impressed me most about THE BROTHERS BLOOM was the writing. Taking absolutely nothing away from Johnson's mood-inspiring visuals, but this script feels like it took years to write and more years to polish and perfect. While the dialogue is completely different than the Chandler-esque style of BRICK, Johnson has crafted a work that is at various times breezy, emotional, tricky, passionate, terrifying and funny--sometimes all in the same scene. Brody's performance as Bloom seems ripped from Russian literature, filtered through a Marx Brothers movie. As the film progresses, the con aimed at Penelope closes in, but we assume that Bloom's feelings for her will overtake the brothers' plan to steal her money. And thus the drama kicks in and keeps us guessing long past the point where we think we've figured it out. Key supporting performances from Robbie Coltrane and Maximilian Schell just make a great experience even better, without feeling like stunt casting. Schell is particularly stellar and reminds us that he can still be one menacing son of a bitch when he wants to be. In case you couldn't tell, I loved this movie because it does something that few films in any given year accomplish--it took me to a place and told a story that I have never been to or seen before on the big screen. It sounds so simple, yet so few filmmakers make it happen. The day Johnson shows the slightly signs of being derivative will indeed be a sad day for movie lovers. Until that day--and that day may never come--we'll just have to endure unique and stunning works of art like THE BROTHERS BLOOM.

-- Capone
capone@aintitcoolmail.com