The Brothers Bloom
Starring: Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz, Mark Ruffalo, Rinko Kikuchi
Director: Rian Johnson
Certificate: 12
Rating: 4/5
After completely flopping at the box office, The Brothers Bloom finally makes its way on to home formats after coming out in American cinemas more than a year ago.
The brother’s themselves are a pair of con-artists, who travel the globe with their near silent companion only known as Bang Bang.
The younger of the brothers, helpfully called Bloom (Adrien Brody) realises that he’s had enough and wants out of game and to settle down. His elder Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) has different ideas and convinces Bloom to go for one last big score against eccentric millionaire Penelope (Rachel Weisz).
The problem is that that’s all that can be said about The Brothers Bloom without giving away all of the story and its plot twists. That’s right, multiple.
They start early and only amp up throughout, growing from chin scratching to plain migraine inducing. You may have to bring an espresso and a notepad for some towards the end.
Thankfully they don’t detract too much from what is, at heart, a warm funny and clever love story.
The Brothers Bloom though is at its best when it’s deciding to be comedy. Whether it’s smart retorts or more than a healthy dollop of slapstick, The Brother’s Bloom really does know how to set up a punch line.
This is all heald together by the great cast. Brody has perfected his quirky, quiet intellectual over the years and is more than ably helped by Ruffalo and Weisz. A cameo from Robbie Coltrane as a Belgian arts dealer puts the icing on the acting cake.
Not everything is good though. The film really struggles with pacing problems, either taking too long over nothing, or doing everything so fast you can’t even make notes. The plot twists don’t help either, making what starts out as light fun into quite hard work.
Also, beware, this is possibly the most hipster/indie film ever made, so if a mumbly Adrien Brody isn’t your cup of tea, this might be your worst nightmare.
No doubt about it though, The Brothers Bloom has style to spare. And hats. Lots and lots of hats.
The Brothers Bloom is out on DVD and Blu Ray on October 4th.
FemaleFirst Cameron Smith