Review of The Brothers Bloom (2008) by Gareth R — 06 Jun 2011

Oh, goodie, another movie about con men.

It's not as if every single one of them is awful, but it's amazing how many tread the exact same path. Con men are the protagonists, so they're going to be rascals with a hint of conscience. They'll go about their devious dealings until the big reveal at the end, when the audience realises he or she has become the mark. See enough of these movies and you not only learn to see the bluff coming, but you find it hard to empathise with the characters - who are crooks, however loveable - and virtually impossible to care what happens to them. Why bother investing if at any moment the whole thing could turn around? The Sting did it well enough, although even then it was a cheat. But at least The Sting was charming. With its vicious mobster baddie and Depression setting, it was actually possible to care about con men. Less so here.

Perhaps Dirty Rotten Scoundrels would be a better comparison, since that's a comedy, and so is The Brothers Bloom - stylistically, at least. In Scoundrels, there's no attempt for sympathy. We revel in their naughtiness and will them to destroy each other. But here? The comedy is inconsistent and it's just no fun.

The Brothers Bloom opens with narration. The kind that bookends the movie, meaning the kind that's surgically grafted onto an ailing script. Not a good start. Anyway, Narrator tells us this ain't your average con man movie. Oh, is that so? Hopes are set pretty high, and this is the first minute.

And, what can I say? It's a con man movie. The characters are rascals with a hint of conscience. They deal deviously, pulling the rug from under us, the viewer, and from their other mark, Penelope (Rachel Weicz). You sit there and watch it unspool, because it's a con man movie and that's how it goes. Will the characters learn, grow, change because of what happened here? I simply don't care. They're con men, they spend all their time lying to other people and us, so why care? They're not even *funny* con men.

The Brothers Bloom is particularly tedious. I tend to avoid movies with Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo, as I find both of them boring, so I didn't enjoy their sadsack double act. The writing and direction is all quirky and unmistakeably indie, but it succeeds only in adding irritating trappings to, well, your average con man movie.

Long, twisty-turny and yawn-takingly tedious, Brothers Bloom is lightened by the odd funny inflection or successful quirk. A blanket of Don't Care covers the rest of it, making me long for the days when con man movies were either about something - like in the seemingly unique Paper Moon - or bothered to populate the screen with charismatic rascals. The Sting and Dirty Rotten Scoundrels succeeded, Ocean's Eleven tried and failed, and this does about as well as one of its sequels.