A man walks in to a bar. 

All stories start somewhere. The Brothers Bloom starts with a girl. And two boys. And a story. 

Rian Johnson’s second adventure [after Brick] manipulates and entertains his audience. A well crafted tale of confidence brings two brothers together, with two girls, to tell one hell of a yarn. 

Inspired after some of cinema’s greatest con-men tales, such as Paper Moon, Johnson brings the camera closer to the heart of the confidence men by splitting the common traits of such into two characters; Stephen, the brains, and Bloom, the heart. In this battle between brothers, we see the battle between the desire to be trusted and the urge to use that trust to gain value. Can the brain ever stop working, stop writing the cons, and let the heart live an unwritten life?

Johnson channels a Wes Anderson emotionality within his words. The dialogue is spiffy and quirky. Johnson lays down the punches minute by minute, layering humanality with humourism. Even a character with two lines [and one karaoke song] is directed flawlessly, with each eyebrow lift and wink conveying paragraphs of script. 

Johnson takes his audience on a drive within a different world. He leads us in to a wilderness, confiding the story until we follow where he’s pointing. We give him our watches. 

The characters are purely lovable and we yearn for an ending where everyone gets what they want; a perfect con. 

Johnson has created an iconic style. Inspiration with originality. Brick gave an unique twist on the crime story for a new generation, providing a challenging role for Levitt, which he played up to brilliantly. Another round of unique characters cons The Brothers Bloom. The brothers, in Brody and Ruffalo, are part of a whole in which each man cannot be successful without his counterpart. Rachel Weisz’s portrayal of the girl who knows everything yet has experienced nothing is fresh, and Bang Bang, Rinko Kikuchi, is bang on as a girl with only two lines, yet speaks volumes through imaginative direction.

Step through the looking glass into Alice’s side of life. Although the quirkiness can be out on a limb, it’s better to climb the branch and become immersed than think ill of Johnson’s fairy tale. Your cradle may fall.

A man walks out of a bar $1.75 million richer.