When the younger of two notorious sibling con artists announces a plan to go legit, his brother implores him to carry out one last swindle in the eagerly anticipated sophomore feature from Brick writer/director Rian Johnson. Tired of a life on the run, a confidence man who has dedicated his life to the art of the grift decides to call it quits. Despite his plans to leave his criminal past behind, however, the reluctant scammer finds that his brother has masterminded one last scheme to claim the
wealth of an eccentric millionaire (Rachel Weisz). With the opportunity to make enough money so that he would be able to live comfortably even if his legitimate endeavors fail, the heretofore unrepentant con man finds it increasingly difficult to refuse his sibling's potentially profitable endeavor. ~ Jason Buchanan, Rovi
Rian Johnson injects punchy, off-kilter fantastical charm into his playfully globetrotting film. It's like a cuckoo clock - precise, ornate and screwy-looking. But Bloom and Penelope's love - and resultant rifts - comes off as real-world collateral.
We feel regularly discombobulated on the sea of this movie's ideas - which is a good thing for people feeling marooned by the general stupidity of this summer's film releases.
Johnson's script and directing style suffocates the duo with too many cookie-cutter indie movie quirks, making it all too easy to spot the joins and lose interest...
The effect is something like Dirty Rotten Scoundrels done by Wes Anderson in a morose mood, much as its creator would presumably resist the latter comparison.
Perhaps you can be too cool for school and too clever for a multiplex, but if you're willing to go along with this, you'll enjoy being fooled so much that you won't mind it's all a trick.
Ahhh ... the art of the con. What's needed first is charisma, and this film's got that in spades, all the leads've got it. Then you need a hustle, a mark, someone the audience wants to see stung. And here the film falls flat. There's not one bad guy ... so they end up conning each other. A disappointment. Not
terrible, just kinda blah.
Following on from his modern noir and impressive directorial debut "Brick" in 2005, director Rian Johnson faced the tricky second feature syndrome. After a three year wait he delivered this... another convoluted tale, but with altogether different results. Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and younger sibling Bloom (Adrien Brody)
are a couple of con-men who criss cross the globe shafting the unwary. Their latest mark, however, is something new: wealthy recluse Penelope (Rachel Weisz) who, having spent her life mastering a miscellany of random skills (break dancing, banjo plucking, juggling chainsaws), is only too happy to follow them and their mute munitions expert 'Bang-Bang' (Rinko Kikuchi) to Prague where a priceless antique is ripe for the taking. With this second feature it looks like Rian Johnson enjoys a good puzzling story. His debut was full of twists and turns and more than a nod or two to crime writers Dashiell Hammett and Raymond Chandler. This time he employs a subtext with nods to several classic literary novels and authors. The references are subtle but cleverly dropped into his tangled and intricate flim-flam story. Added to which are bags of visual flourishes and fine performances by the four leads. However, what is a strong and satisfying hustle soon becomes a bit too clever for it's own good and as it draws to a close it ends up tying itself in knots. Leaving us with an unsatisfactory (and unnecessary) conclusion. Getting there is loads of fun though and Rian Johnson is shaping up to be a more than competent new director. Four fun, enjoyable and sharply dressed characters play out their scams in an impressive and stylish addition to the Bunco genre. It's just a shame it cons itself out of a convincing ending.
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