The Brothers Bloom

This is a film I wanted to watch for a long time, but for whatever reason it stayed on my DVR for months. I think I liked the idea, the trailers were great, and the cast....forget about it. I guess it had such a good chance of being an epic failure, and I didn't know if I could handle that from Mark Ruffalo and Adrien Brody. Turns out I had nothing to fear. It was quite remarkable. The narrative throughout the beginning will hook you, guaranteed. It's a brilliant deliverance of the written word and it gives the back story of The Brothers Bloom, and how they became Con Men. The world's greatest con men to be more accurate. Con is short for Confidence. They are confidence men which I only found out that after watching the movie "Confidence" with Edward Burns which is also great, but we'll get into that another day. I'm not gonna tell who is who, but The Brother Bloom are Stephen and Bloom. The opening sequence follows them as children and their journey in and out of foster care. The reasons for which they are returned to the foster home from each one of their adopted homes are absolutely hilarious. Then one day a light goes off in Stephen's head. A story actually, and if played to perfection (all 15 parts), then everyone gets what they want -- even the ones being conned. This is life the life these young men set out to master. Skip ahead 25 years and they have become the best in the world. Always getting what they want, unfortunately for Stephen, Bloom is done, and this isn't the first time. He is constantly wondering what his life has become. His job is to get close to "the mark". He has been too close to too many people he had to betray and he is done. Then after a 3 month hiatus Stephen tracks down Bloom for one last job. These premise never go smoothly in any movie, but this is for the big score, probably in the millions. Penelope (Weiss) is the mark for the job and Bloom is unhappy about that. He doesn't like conning woman. It's not a morality issue, but Bloom seems to be easy to fall in love and has had to walk away from to many possible futures of happiness. Once he agrees, he has to "run" into her and start the process. The scene where they first meet is one of the funniest things I have ever seen. Not the actual physical part of it, but the Scores he receives from Stephen and Bang Bang (his Asian assistant/explosives expert). If you don't laugh, then I wouldn't trust you if we ever met. The mark in this case is a bit of a shut in. She was orphaned in her teens and inherited one of the largest estates on the Eastern Seaboard. To say she is eccentric would be an understatement. She has unlimited funds, no people skills, and a knack for learning new skill based hobbies....harp, skateboard, juggling etc. The film's direction is absolutely brilliant in that it displays each of her many talents all in the span of 30 seconds. Plus she is beautiful. Bloom is gonna have a tough one carrying through with this one. She is so bored with the life she has, setting the hook isn't that hard. Next thing you know, she is in for some adventure. This leads to that, and that to this, but all in all she gets her adventure and everyone wins...that is until she claims the job is not complete. Now Stephen has to create a new story and have it go perfectly so she will go home. It is a really fun movie to watch and if it seems to get confusing near the end, that's because it is suppose to. It will soon make sense and you should be happy. Back to the direction. I loved the way the brothers dressed. It was as if it should be the 20's, 30's, or 40's. I'm not a clothing historian so I cannot be for sure which decade it looks like. It looks old school and I love their wardrobe throughout. It is shot like it is that era. The luggage, clothes, bike, and boats, but then mixed in is a Lamborghini, graffiti on the building and so on. It does a great job of slapping together the two eras. Mark Ruffalo can do not wrong in my book, and I have loved Adrien Brody since he was in Angels in the Outfield. I know Tony Danza and Danny Glover were the stars of that film, but Adrien Brody and Matthew McConaughey were the real stars. Next for Ruffalo we get to see if he does as good as Ed Norton in the role of Bruce Banner as the Hulk.

NBM rates The Brothers Bloom - Phenomenal

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