The Brothers Bloom (2008) ***

Much in the way that Rian Johnson attempted to subvert film noir with 2005's Brick (my review here), The Brothers Bloom (2008), his swing at the con movie, only half works for me. His next film, Looper remains my favorite of his so far.

TBB is cute and quirky but the tone is muddled. Some of the time it feels like The Sting (1973) (a perfect film), most of the time it feels like a Wes Anderson facsimile—particularly his 1996 debut Bottle Rocket (a near perfect film)—right down to the music choices and the inclusion of Adrien Brody. There's hints of Hal Ashby sprinkled throughout as well. There's fun to be had in the jet set/old-fashioned romance elements of the picture, but it suffers from being overlong and underwhelming. Is TBB a good film? Yes. Is it a great one? Not quite.

You can find my Rian Johnson Feature Films Ranked list here.