The Brothers Bloom (2008)

"Pick a card..."

At one point during the delightfully charming and unfortunately little-noticed The Brothers Bloom, one of its characters says "A picture is a secret about a secret. The more it tells, the less you know." Her insightful ekphrasis is actually a quote by acclaimed American photographer Diane Arbus. It sums up this ingenious film perfectly.

The movie stars Oscar winner Adrien Brody (The Pianist, Hollywoodland, Liberty Heights) and Mark Ruffalo (You Can Count on Me, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, Collateral) as the eponymous Brothers. They’re con men from way back. And I mean way back: they started as elementary-school kids, swindling money from parents of other kids by concocting an intricate scheme to get the children muddy, just to benefit a dry cleaner.

Ruffalo is Stephen, the idea man. He dreams up the unimaginably complicated blueprints for their schemes, and will go to great lengths to pull them off. About his devotion to the plans, his brother says “he writes cons the way dead Russians write novels, with thematic arcs and embedded symbolism, and shit.” To Stephan, his cons are literally works of art. They’re also a way to escape the mundane existence of day-to-day life. He believes “the perfect con is one where everyone involved gets just what they wanted.”

Brody plays Bloom, the idealist of the pair. He dutifully plays his role in their swindles, but is suffering a bit of an existential crisis. He long for something more. Something that’s not illusory and fleeting. Something real, stable and permanent.

The third member of the team is a charismatic and mysterious Japanese demolition expert, known alternately as Ying Ling (like the beer?), but mostly as “Bang Bang.” She’s played by Rinko Kikuchi (Babel, Pacific Rim). She rarely speaks, choosing instead to communicate almost exclusively through gestures, facial expressions, reactions and her explosions.

The Brothers hatch a plan for one last, big heist. It involves conning a rich, reclusive, beautiful young woman called Penelope (the lovely and talented Rachel Weisz from The Shape of Things, The Constant Gardner, The Whistleblower). She lives alone in an enormous mansion, battling her loneliness by “collecting hobbies.” She’s a photographer, juggler, skateboarder, rapper, and can ride a unicycle. She’s also endlessly trusting, kind, forgiving, and more than a little naïve. In short, the perfect mark for a con artist.

As the Brothers set about separating her from her fortune with their latest ruse, a funny thing happens along the way. During its execution, Bloom starts to wonder if lines are blurring. Is he’s simply playing his prescribed role, or actually starting to empathize with, and develop honest feelings for, Penelope? There’s the rub.

Director Rian Johnson lists The Sting as one of his chief inspirations. When you see Bloom, you’ll understand why. There are set-ups and distractions here that closely recall the Newman/Redford classic. Only here, we’re not sure if the swindlers are conning only their marks, each other, or unwittingly themselves, all at the same time.

Bloom also reminded me of another Redford film I much admire, the inventive Sneakers. Like that film, Bloom never quite tips its hand. We’re not sure about the motivations and allegiances of its characters. Which only adds to the mystery and fun.

Johnson’s writing in The Brothers Bloom is particularly sharp. There are too many references (self and otherwise) to count. Even the music has relevance. In addition to having crafted an endlessly creative story, Johnson’s characters her have razor-sharp wit, and each thinks incredibly quick on their feet. They’re all fully developed, individually different, and fascinating.  

The film is sumptuous looking, through and through. Its costumes are luxurious. The settings exotic and magnificent. The color palette is rich and saturated. There are interesting title-card scenes, where subtle animation blends seamlessly back in to live action. The cons are minutely detailed and elaborate. Everything about Bloom suggests wealth, cunning and intrigue. It’s plot is inventive and clever, sometimes to the point of confusion. But it’s always performing with a nod-and-a-wink. It knows it’s being precocious and audacious, and it knows that you know, too.

What separates Bloom from other enjoyable heist films (like David Mamet’s estimable The Heist, as well as Soderbergh’s Ocean’s movies), and the primary reason the film’s successful, is that the characters here care about each other. They’re not merely self absorbed crooks, worried only about how much the plan’s successful execution will benefit them. Stephen’s and Bloom’s fraternal bond feels real. Despite all the deceit and double crosses, somewhere deep down they sincerely care about one another. Their mutual affection grounds an otherwise dizzying storyline.

I’ve seen this film several times (the first at the Boston Independent Film Festival, where director spoke afterwards), and am still not positive about what happens, exactly. I think I might know, but I’m not certain. Because it’s about a con within a con within a con within a con, it’s like those nested Russian dolls. Every time you think you have a handle on what’s happening, that notion’s turned on its head. Every time you think you have it figured out, the filmmakers are three steps ahead, and have not only already diverted your attention with several other plausible explanations, but they’ve also worked out several other different paths they could send you down. You think “…well, maybe this person’s doing this, and they’re going to end up here…”. But you’re wrong. What’s actually honestly-and-truly happening is rarely apparent on the surface. Like The Usual Suspects, it plays its cards beneath its vest. It enjoys letting the audience think it knows where its headed, then pulls the rug out from under us. When you go back to consider what might’ve actually happened, it makes you wonder “was any of it real?” The Brothers Bloom is the kind of film where exactly nothing is as it appears. It’s like a spinning hall of mirrors, full of strobe lights. All is deception and convincing sleight of hand. Sometimes it’s great fun to get tricked. The truth is what's going on inside Brody's character's heart.