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Writer director Rian Johnson’s follow-up to the dark and disturbing Brick moves into some very surprising territory, a film that on first glance appears to be the complete opposite of his debut: a screwball comedy focusing on the lives of the two titular conmen. Yet this is only half the story, as Johnson attempts to weave comedy with some surprising dark considerations of humanity.
The basic premise of the film is to all extents and purposes somewhat clichéd. The Bloom brothers set out on one last job to swindle an eccentric millionaire (Rachel Weisz). Furthermore, as you might expect, the younger brother Bloom (Adrien Brody) inevitably falls in love with her and problems ensue. So far so predictable, yet the film tries to move beyond this, with elder brother Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) creating vast and complicated stings which according to his brother are ‘like Russian novels’, and is indeed more interested in creating what he considers the perfect con than any material gain. What makes this particularly interesting is that as a result his younger brother questions how much of his life is his own and how much is the result of his brother’s schemes. This creates some intriguing drama and brings up serious themes, but it also brings about one of the film’s greatest failures. As a result of the complexity of the cons described, you cannot help but attempt to predict the film’s developments, which are never clever enough to bring about genuine surprise.
The serious elements of the film cause another considerable problem in that they serve to significantly hamper the comedy. It occurs regardless of the best attempts of those on screen, with Rachel Weisz giving her all to create a wonderful performance as the odd millionaire Penelope, and Rinko Kikuchi who plays Bang Bang, the brothers’ Barbie-hating Japanese assistant, whose name stems from her penchant for explosives. Yet neither of these well-acted characters seem to lead to anything that results in actual laughter. The problem comes primarily from the fact that despite advertising itself as a comedy, the film is far more interested in moving towards darker subjects, resulting in an increasingly noticeable lack of humour as the film progresses.
Overall, the film does succeed on many levels, remaining both interesting and entertaining from beginning to end. But it never really works in a comedic sense, becoming more of a tragicomedy which proves to be unsuitable for its screwball elements, meaning the film fails to achieve its ambitions and always feels slightly uncomfortable. In the end, although enjoyable and undoubtedly intriguing, the film feels considerably disappointing, since it is never as clever as it thinks it is.
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