The Brothers Bloom

Bizarre! Ridiculous! Funny! I would have thought the Brothers Coen had produced this entertaining film. Adrien Brody plays the part of Bloom and Mark Ruffalo is his brother, Stephen. The actors seem to have a great time and perform well in this film. The beautiful Rachel Weisz is also great as the ‘ditsy’, nutty Penelope.

Bloom and Stephen are poor orphans who learn at an early year to charm, bamboozle and scam the kids in the neighborhood. They need the money and want to live a good lifestyle.

As adults they continue to swindle anyone that they can. They carefully plan each operation. Stephen illustrates his plot in detailed webs of instructions including words and illustrations. The plans are actually very funny.

Stephen has a side kick, Bang Bang, who is the most bizarre character of all. She dresses in weird but wonderful outfits. She rarely speaks but her presence is most definitely seen and felt throughout the film. She is an expert on explosives and uses her talent throughout the film.

Bloom wants to retire to Montenegro but promises Stephen that he will do one more heist. The plan is scam the beautiful Penelope.

Now Penelope is one strange character. She lives in an oversized palatial mansion. Her hobby seems to be crashing her bright yellow sports car. She lives alone and passes her time playing a variety of musical instruments.

At times you feel she is aware that they are trying to scam her. At other times you think she is so fascinated with Bloom that that she doesn’t even care if he takes her money.

The Bloom brothers travel to Russia, Montenegro, Mexico and Prague as part of their scheming ways. I did like their life style and I loved the views of the various cities.

At times you wonder if you are seeing things. At one point a cat sitting in a skate rolled across the floor. In another scene a camel is seen walking down a street. I began to question the meaning of such absurdity but decided that it added to the frolicking fun of the zany characters.

Several times you think one of the brothers has been shot. I barely had time to get out the kleenex when the red blood turned out to be red paint hidden inside the white shirt. Each time they were shot I wondered if it was going to be another trick or the real thing.

You are kept guessing until the end of the film. I’m not known for having a sense of humor but I really loved this whacky film. I would not be surprised if any reader questions my sanity on my opinion of this film.