DIRECTOR: Rian Johnson

CAST: Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Robbie Coltrane

Writer-director Rian Johnson had a nice idea — a film about two brothers who are con artistes, where one con runs seamlessly into the other, where none can anymore tell where a con ends and reality begins, and where truth ultimately is perhaps what one chooses to believe. With the younger brother the reluctant partner in the con games, and a rich heiress who may or may not be who she seems, there are layers of lies, un-truths and half-truths that The Brothers Bloom wades in.

With the ravishing Weisz as the heiress whose hobby is “borrowing hobbies”, which means she can do everything from origami to circus tricks, Brody as the reluctant partner, Ruffalo as the elder brother in chase of that perfect con, and a feel reminiscent of gentler times, this should logically be a great film.

It isn’t. While the film has the basic skeleton right, it seems to be missing a heart. Too many things happen too fast, there are too many jumps in the story, too many places to run to, with the characters barely getting time to catch their breath. Like the carefully planned cons, the actors seem to be pawns in a story that Johnson and only Johnson has thought through. You understand some of what the Brothers Bloom are doing, some you only take a guess at.

Orphans, Stephen (Ruffalo) and Bloom (Brody) take to conning pretty early to make the extra buck. Stephen is the initiator, and the thinker, while Bloom plays out the roles that the elder brother writes for him. Finally, Bloom wants out. Stephen convinces him that cheating heiress Penelope Stamp (Weisz) of her millions will be their last job.

... contd.