The Brothers Bloom wins with charisma

In theaters Friday: Law Abiding Citizen, New York, I Love You [limited], The Stepfather, Where the Wild Things Are

New on DVD/Blu-Ray: Drag Me to Hell, Land of the Lost, The Proposal

Cynics and those who watch way too many movies—okay, so maybe they’re not mutually exclusive—will tell you that every story there is to tell has already been told. The only differences, they’ll say, are in the details. If that is true, then put me on the team with the auteur behind Brick and The Brothers Bloom, because nobody gets audiences from point A to point B like writer-director Rian Johnson. Nobody. His debut Brick spun classic noir into a surreal, modernist high school thriller with such expertise that it made Amy Heckerling’s attempt at updating Shakespeare into ’90s Hollywood glitz with Clueless look garishly ham-fisted.

Johnson avoided the sophomore slump earlier this year with his quirky, highbrow, cut-to-the-chase con flick The Brothers Bloom, out now on DVD and Blu-Ray. Brick star Joseph Gordon-Levitt does appear briefly in a cameo, but largely Johnson’s palette has expanded from that indie film in every way. Bloom globe trots from Mexico to New Jersey to Prague to Moscow, and the cast is top notch with Mark Ruffalo as silver-tongued ringleader Steven, Oscar-winner Adrien Brody as doubtful younger brother Bloom, and Oscar-winner Rachael Weisz as the eccentric heiress who becomes their final target. Rounding out the cast is Rinko Kikuchi who, so delicately damaged and tragic in her Oscar-nominated performance in Babel, pulls a U-turn back her comedic routes by creating a hilarious Peter Sellers-esque wordless performance as the brother’s “fifth Beatle,” a munitions expert named Bang Bang.

The plot begins with Bloom in full-on mid-30s crisis mode. His whole life has been spent living out the elaborate cons and fake identities his brother Stephen schemes for him like a dubious playwright, and he wants out. When Stephen tempts him with one last con that will not only leave them set for life but also offer Bloom a way out of the business, Bloom can’t refuse. Their target is Penelope Stamp, a reclusive heiress they hope to hoodwink for millions.

Played like an unpredictable pixie by Weisz, Penelope spends her lonely days collecting the hobbies of others. In one breathtaking sequence, we see her play piano, violin, banjo and accordion, break-dance, deejay, juggle, karate kick, ride a unicycle and a skateboard, and go Forest Gump on a ping-pong table. It is brilliant filmmaking and an exhilarating introduction to her oddball character.

The problem is, Bloom falls in love with Penelope and the brothers’ world traveling con hits more snags, setbacks, and double-crosses than even crooks of their caliber could have expected. If there is a fault here, there may be one too many turns in this trickster’s plot. Because this one has be followed so closely to be appreciated at all. This isn’t Ocean’s Eleven. But by the end, Johnson made me care for his characters. I can’t remember the last time I felt so much for people so strange. The end is a joyous heartbreak, and that’s the best way I know how to describe it.

Throughout, Johnson’s wit is dry, his vernacular peculiar, and the camerawork, costumes and characters high on style. Fans of Wes Anderson’s The Royal Tenenbaums and The Life Aquatic will immediately connect with the sensibilities of The Brothers Bloom. Let’s just hope Hollywood doesn’t dull Johnson’s striking individualism so can create fresh, intelligent films like this for years to come.