Todd's blog

The seventh annual Independent Film Festival Boston kicked off on Wednesday night with Rian Johnson’s The Brothers Bloom, a romance tucked inside a comedy couched within a confidence scheme (a rom-com-con?).  The romance, predictably, grows between a mark and one of the con men.  The comedy is unexpected and liberally sprinkled throughout.  While not integral to the plot, the humor is always welcome, never off mark and adds appreciably to the appeal of the film.  The cons begin when the titular brothers, as children, move to yet another new town and decide to pull one over on the entrenched “playground bourgeoisie”.  Even at that young age, the cons are multi-layered and infused with a certain “cinematic arc”.  As adults, their cons – as with all good con plots – involve elaborate set pieces and quirky characters that interact like a Rube Goldberg machine.  In what is set up to be the stereotypical “one last score”, the appeal of the mark and her reaction to the ongoing con alter the carefully laid out plans and – breaking with formula – the story becomes more about the character interaction then the maguffin of the con.  Add in Rachel Weisz, Adrien Brody, and Mark Ruffalo, a highly-stylized look and feel, exotic international locations, and narration and inspiration by con icon and aficionado Ricky Jay and the Brothers Bloom makes a fitting start to the week of film to follow.

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