The Brothers Bloom (2008, USA)

I’m a fan of Rian Johnson’s Brick – in fact, it may be the most recent theatrical release that I’ve bothered to pick up on DVD – so I was disappointed by how shallow I found The Brothers Bloom to be. For all its style, its rambling about stories and storytelling, and the cheeky visual cues, I felt that Bloom was, in essence, much ado about nothing. Everyone’s playing to type, too – Mark Ruffalo gets the best lines (with the best delivery – “That’s my new favorite camel” is a winner), Adrien Brody broods soulfully, Rachel Weisz is adorably madcap, and Rinko Kikuchi is, um . . . Japanese?

To be honest, the characters really started to bother me the more I thought about them. I’m used to, and rather tired of, the little boy lost routine, even when it looks as good as Brody does it here (the man should not be allowed to wear contemporary clothing. You’ve seen the internet. You know what I mean.), but it ended up being the ladies that really bugged. Weisz’s Penelope is essentially a mid-30s version of the Manic Pixie Dream Girl, a blank slate that Brody’s recovering con man can write his future on. I give Weisz credit for infusing Penelope with as much life and agency as she could, but on paper, the character is a mess. I kept hoping for a third-act reversal that would give Penelope some depth, but no such luck. And perhaps the less said about the eternally silent Bang Bang (Kikuchi), the better. She doesn’t even get to speak in her own language – rather, she sits around looking adorable in kooky couture, trading meaningful looks with the boys and occasionally blowing things up when called upon. Manic Pixie Dream Girl, killer geisha version 2.0.

I’m disappointed in Johnson. The females he wrote in Brick were certainly types, but they were types that he pulled out of the noir films and the high school movies he was toying with, and they rated a lot more attention and care than either Penelope or Bang Bang get. Bloom feels as if a newbie director got in a bit over his head. He wrote himself into a movie that he couldn’t quite figure a smart way out of, and he lost some of his strengths – language and plotting among them – along the way. Still, it’s a sophomore stumble, and I don’t doubt that Johnson has the skills to see his way back to more assured filmmaking.