CMJ '08 @ The Movies: The Brothers Bloom

Continuing in my quest to partake of all of CMJ's non-traditional (i.e. non small-club-live-rock) offerings I followed my day one adventures on Broadway by hunkering down in Tribeca for Rian Johnson's latest indie film, "The Brothers Bloom," starring Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo and Rachel Weisz.
 
The melancholic comedy caper flick made it's CMJ pit stop after doing some of the film festival circuit (namely Toronto) on it's way to a December release, and Nathan Johnson, who did the film's music, was on hand for the screening and a Q&A afterward, but he seemed as surprised to be in New York for CMJ as I was surprised this film was showing. The jaunt, quirky, largely instrumental, vaguely classic soundtrack was incidental to the thrust of the film at best.

Seeing quasi-genteel con men sibs Stephen (Ruffalo) and Bloom (Brody) take lonely eccentric "epileptic photographer" Penelope (Weisz) around the world (Prague, Russia, Mexico) on steamer ships and overnight trains in an incredibly convoluted effort to swindle her was a nice ride, especially with Brody really working his baleful eyes and sharp cheeks.

But as the con racked up ever more triple crosses, offbeat locales and overwrought monologuing, it all did start to fell like just so much Wes Anderson simulacra, and not just because it was an indie with eclectic grown up music, Adrien Brody on an exotic train (cf. "Darjeeling Limited") and cool beans handwritten interstitial titles (ahem, "Royal Tenenebaums"). But hey, though it was an ultimately overlong and unsatisfying journey, a filmmaker can do much worse than try to channel Wes Anderson. -- Jessica Letkemann