Review of The Brothers Bloom (2008) by Edith N — 02 Apr 2011

Tales Drawn Long and Tall.

True it is that when an educated person names their characters Bloom, Stephen, and Penelope, they have some literary games to play. I've not read [i]Ulysses[/i] myself, and I've had it validated this week that I don't have to, but you don't have to read it to know about Leopold Bloom. Now, the Bloom here isn't Leopold; the one we are interested in has no first name. We also have no extended bathroom scenes, and certainly the action here doesn't take place on a single day or in a single location. Yes, Bloom seems a little bewildered about where life will lead him, but that's as much because he can't figure out how to get rid of his brother as anything else. I suspect that Joyce really wrote very little about epileptic photographers, though I suppose he would have, had the idea occurred to him. However, I must say that it doesn't bother me that I won't be able to do any kind of full-fledged literary analysis. There's a reason I don't read Joyce.

Anyway, here, we have Stephen Bloom (Mark Ruffalo), and his brother with no first name (Adrien Brody). When they were children (and were Max Records and Zachary Gordon), Stephen worked out an involved con involving the rich children who wouldn't accept them and a cave. The brothers were foster children, bounced from house to house because of the behaviour, and after the first major con they pulled, the reason listed on the form for why the were returned was "larceny." All grown up, Bloom is still unhappy. He apparently concludes every job by telling his brother it will be his last. And this time, he vanishes. Stephen tracks him down to Montenegro three months later and sells him on One Last Job. They will con a million dollars out of Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a lonely and isolated eccentric. The set up involves people going by names like "Bang Bang" (Rinko Kikuchi, who gets essentially no lines) and "the Curator" (Robbie Coltrane). And the ominous Diamond Dog (Maximilian Schell).

The narration is done by Ricky Jay, which is appropriate enough, if you know who Ricky Jay is. He's a charming fellow whom I've seen on two TV shows, once as a pair of twin magicians and once as himself, throwing cards at Adam Savage. He's a man who has lived in the world of the stage magician, which is only another con game, if you think about it. His voice is also both placid and cynical. He isn't surprised by anything the Blooms are doing, and he doesn't know why we would be, either. He isn't impressed, even though the movie opens with a twelve-year-old and a ten-year-old pulling a pretty sophisticated con. They're just doing what the Bloom boys do. If you acted impressed, they might think they were doing something worth paying attention to. Ricky Jay isn't going to make that mistake. He can, however, show mild appreciation at the skill involved, and a bit of scorn at you for believing they were planning something simple.

The thing is, I don't like Mark Ruffalo, so it's greatly pleasing that, here, you're not supposed to. Stephen is a horrible person. He sees life as a game, I think, and a play that he alone has the script to. Oh, he'll share it with his brother, but only if it's convenient for him. It probably grates on him that he doesn't know anything about Bang Bang, but since she never seems inclined to tell anyone anything about her--she'd have to talk--he can work around that. It's safe enough to assume that anyone they talk to during the entire job is a plant, even if it can't possibly be true. He'll find a way. The only problem is that he needs actors he can trust in major roles, and the one he trusts most is his brother. He's been writing roles for his brother for twenty years. (The boys are adorable in their dark suits and hats!) The reason he thinks it's a joke that Bloom might want to walk away is as much that he didn't write Bloom's exit into the script as anything else.

It is significant, I think, that Bloom never gets a first name. The way he ties back to the [i]Odyssey[/i], through Leopold Bloom, is that he is a man in search of himself. He is Bloom, which is an extension of a shared existence with his brother. Ever since he was ten, he has been playing a character created by his brother. When he falls in love with Penelope, he is playing a character his brother created to fall in love with Penelope. Bang Bang probably has a name that she is not sharing with the others; Bloom isn't sure of his name himself. He is surprised when Stephen finds him, after Bloom has run away, because he has nowhere to run to, just from. He wants to love Penelope, but he doesn't quite know how to. He's only ever loved his brother, and he knows he can't love her in the same way. At the beginning, Bloom had his one true chance of walking away, and he misses it. For the rest of his life, his only chance at freedom is for his brother to be willing to give it to him.