DVD Release: The Brothers Bloom
Adventurous, humourous and chock-full of class
Review
Adventure films. From Indiana Jones on to Jumanji and back through The Goonies, they've been a staple of cinema since reels began rolling. Sometimes they'll mix with sci-fi (obviously Star Wars), more-often than not they'll mix with love (Romancing The Stone), but it's pretty rare that they'll cross with style. There's always a bit of an innate dorkiness and unsophistication that comes with the ”adventure“ territory, but if there was someone who could bring a sense of chic to this genre then... well, Rian Johnson has jumped the queue and thrown his effort forward first.
The Brothers Bloom is Johnson's follow up to the impossibly chic, and also very good, 2005 feature ”Brick“. That was a cross between Clueless and The Big Sleep, combining film noir with that most alien of social environments; high school. This time round sees him foray a little more into the big league, with a cast boasting three Academy Awards nominees (two of them going on to be winners), and a clearly expanded budget. 
The eponymous brothers (Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo) have a difficult start in life, seeing them hoisted from foster home to foster home. Stephen (Ruffalo) discovers an innate skill at conning those around him, but with only the best intentions, ideally creating a con that results in all involved getting what they want. Skip forward a few years and the duo have become very good at what they do, resulting in a jet-set lifestyle of decadence and glamour and, well, jet-setting. However the younger sibling, Bloom (Brody) yearns for the good ol' ”something more“. In a life scripted by his brother he's looking for the unwritten story.
The film takes a leap here with the introduction of Itchy's new favourite epileptic millionairess; Penelope (Rachel Weisz). She could so easily have slipped into the clichéd and annoying branch of ”kooky“, but her stand-out performance gives Penelope an irresistible endearing feel, which when combined with her character's varied ”talents“, nicely shakes-up the formulaic ”love interest“ role she's given. Add to this some excellent support from Rinko Kikuchi (channelling Inspector Clouseau's silent assistant Cato), cameos from Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell and almost the entire company of Brick, and you've got a cast which is nothing if not classy.
Johnson has made a very pretty film, an attractiveness which, at points, carries more weight than the actual plot, but the surreal and fantastic world he's created for his story fits it perfectly. It won't be winning Oscars anytime soon, but it's definitely got something to appeal to everyone and if you're struggling through a mire of ”Sex And The City 2“s and horrendous 3D-enforced flicks then we can heartily recommend The Brothers Bloom. It occasionally sacrifices some substance for all its style, but it still manages to be laugh-out-loud funny, and it'll probably be a while before you see Rachel Weisz getting stimulated by a thunderstorm again.www.brothersbloom.com
Mark Linnane
The Brothers Bloom is Johnson's follow up to the impossibly chic, and also very good, 2005 feature ”Brick“. That was a cross between Clueless and The Big Sleep, combining film noir with that most alien of social environments; high school. This time round sees him foray a little more into the big league, with a cast boasting three Academy Awards nominees (two of them going on to be winners), and a clearly expanded budget.
The eponymous brothers (Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo) have a difficult start in life, seeing them hoisted from foster home to foster home. Stephen (Ruffalo) discovers an innate skill at conning those around him, but with only the best intentions, ideally creating a con that results in all involved getting what they want. Skip forward a few years and the duo have become very good at what they do, resulting in a jet-set lifestyle of decadence and glamour and, well, jet-setting. However the younger sibling, Bloom (Brody) yearns for the good ol' ”something more“. In a life scripted by his brother he's looking for the unwritten story.
The film takes a leap here with the introduction of Itchy's new favourite epileptic millionairess; Penelope (Rachel Weisz). She could so easily have slipped into the clichéd and annoying branch of ”kooky“, but her stand-out performance gives Penelope an irresistible endearing feel, which when combined with her character's varied ”talents“, nicely shakes-up the formulaic ”love interest“ role she's given. Add to this some excellent support from Rinko Kikuchi (channelling Inspector Clouseau's silent assistant Cato), cameos from Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell and almost the entire company of Brick, and you've got a cast which is nothing if not classy.
Johnson has made a very pretty film, an attractiveness which, at points, carries more weight than the actual plot, but the surreal and fantastic world he's created for his story fits it perfectly. It won't be winning Oscars anytime soon, but it's definitely got something to appeal to everyone and if you're struggling through a mire of ”Sex And The City 2“s and horrendous 3D-enforced flicks then we can heartily recommend The Brothers Bloom. It occasionally sacrifices some substance for all its style, but it still manages to be laugh-out-loud funny, and it'll probably be a while before you see Rachel Weisz getting stimulated by a thunderstorm again.www.brothersbloom.com
Mark Linnane
