The Brothers Bloom
(Friday, May 15, 2009)
Oh, Brothers, you’ve made us wait a long time for you. First, you play footsie with Toronto at last fall’s festival, then you neck with Boston at another festival just last month, and finally, you get in bed with Hulu for seven whole minutes baring your entire brilliant intro (it was good for us, too, not just Hulu — made us forgive your disappearing act in January). In the movie, Adrien Brody, as the younger con-man Bloom, is in a similar lust-filled conundrum with Rachel Weisz, the affluent looker named Penelope who’s about to get played for $2.5 million. Or not. Penelope has Bloom spellbound, and his older brother Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) sees that one half of his Best Con Men in History familial reputation is at risk. Silent partner Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi of Babel fame) provides the explosives — and an addictive quality that’s got us crushin’ on an actress who plays both deaf and dumb really well. Don’t compare it to Ocean’s 11 nor dare utter the words Italian Job anywhere near this unique caper with built-in compassion. From our side, too: We may not have understood everything about the punch-in-the-stomach noir flick Brick (2006), but we appreciate that the same writer-director, Rian Johnson, has delivered us something that wasn’t formerly a best-selling book, a Saturday morning cartoon or a reboot of something now in syndication on the Sci Fi Channel.
YESTERDAY’S DO-IT: Donaghy kidney-wranglin’ on the 30 Rock finale!
