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Can you believe your eyes?
The Brothers Bloom is a lovely confection about con artists and romance.
This is a story about sleight of hand on every level.
It's even got narration from Ricky Jay.
Adrien Brody is Bloom, and Mark Ruffalo is Stephen -- brothers and orphans who learned growing up how to con anyone and everyone they encounter.
The movie begins with a magical flashback to their misspent childhood, two little boys keen to separate people from their money.
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Even as children, however, the brothers know the key to a successful dodge: That everyone gets just the thing he wanted.
Fast forward to present time. These two have grown up to be the best con artists in the world, it seems, and their scams are ornate, beautifully organized and lucrative.
Here's one just winding up now, and here's the wrap party that reveals every person's role in the massive con.
Too bad Bloom, a hopeless romantic type, is ready to quit the whole game.
What luck that Stephen, the brains of every scheme, talks him into one more big job.
They'll con the lovely Penelope (Rachel Weisz), a daffy heiress from New Jersey.
(Stephen, Bloom, Penelope: If we knew what the nod to James Joyce was all about, we'd say so.)
Penelope has enough money to do whatever she pleases, but thus far her many bizarre hobbies -- juggling, music lessons, origami, ships in bottles -- are not enough to keep her amused.
She agrees to invest in a scheme that involves travelling to Europe and smuggling antique books. She also demands to come along on the trip. Off they go to Prague, with Bloom taking a new interest in his work. Penelope is just so charming.
The Brothers Bloom involves cons within cons, and a wonderfully complicated adventure story that moves from Prague to Mexico to Tokyo to St. Petersburg before anything gets resolved. (The end of the tale is somewhat disappointing, but never mind.)
The dialogue is quick and funny, and so are the visuals. This is the sort of film in which the landscape is littered with unexpected and unbelievable people and events.
Absurd and whimsical: That's the general territory. That's also what seems to dictate whether people love this one or hate it, with little in-between.
Also in the cast of The Brothers Bloom are Robbie Coltrane, Rinko Kikuchi (as the explosives expert Bang Bang) and Maximilian Schell.
The Brothers Bloom, which has a terrific soundtrack, was first presented in Toronto during the International Film Festival last fall. The film is written and directed by Rian Johnson, the filmmaker behind the 2005 sleeper hit, Brick.
(This film is rated PG)