The Brothers Bloom

Movie: The Brothers Bloom
Like/Don't Like: Eh, not so much

I am a sucker for highly stylized films. I love all the attention to detail, the clothes, the music, the lighting, the settings, and the generally quirkiness that goes into them. I am pretty susceptible to being carried away by them. I guess I just really appreciate it when film maker has a vision and goes for it whole hog.

This was about 3/4 hog. It had the vision, but it just didn't carry it through to the end.

It follows the capers of two con artist brothers, one the mastermind and the other his faithful front man. They're trying to scam a rich woman out of her fortune by convincing her to go on a decoy con with them. I actually loved her character, played by Rachel Weisz. Mostly because were I a woman of independent means I would be very much like her. She has spent her time and money learning new hobbies like karate and the tuba and DJing. Basically she's living my dream.

The story was a little hard to follow, which I was okay with because I always assume that mysteries will work themselves out in the end and I shouldn't get caught up in the details. And this one did. But it also had a heavier ending than I was expecting and the stylized form with it's retro gothic feel had petered out a little by then and that left the emotional ending a little flat. There were some clever and funny moments throughout but they weren't enough to make it feel like a whole film.