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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

‘Brothers Bloom’ a rewarding con

Roger Moore Orlando Sentinel

“The Brothers Bloom” is a dark “big con” comedy in “The Grifters” tradition.

It’s writer-director Rian Johnson’s homage to the great con-man dramedies of playwright-turned- filmmaker David Mamet, movies like “House of Games” and “The Spanish Prisoner.” Johnson even has Mamet’s resident magician-hustler, Ricky Jay, narrate.

Johnson and his stars, Adrien Brody, Rachel Weisz and Mark Ruffalo, have made a willfully eccentric, instant cult film – a movie for big-con movie lovers, but a movie that’s too clever for its own good and too long by about 20 minutes.

Brody and Ruffalo are orphaned brothers, con artists from an early age. One of the cute conceits here is that they wore black jackets and bowler hats, even as kids. Another is that the younger brother (Brody), the lonely romantic who wants to get out of the game, is just called by their last name, “Bloom.”

Their “one last job” is Penelope, an adorably odd and clumsy millionairess (Weisz, who’s perfect). Steven (Ruffalo, winningly cast against type) wants to give her the “perfect con,” in which everybody involved, even the cheated “mark,” feels rewarded.

In Penelope’s case, that’s a chance to fall in love with Bloom (Brody), to have “a grand adventure” scripted by Steven, which will cost her a million bucks. We travel from Jersey to Montenegro, meet other con men (Robbie Coltrane, Maximilian Schell) and are regaled with big performances in service of a script that crosses from cute to “cutesy.”

It’s all a con, but thanks to Johnson’s way with characters and dialogue, we don’t mind the hustle so long as we’re rewarded along the way.