The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2008)

I just came back from a holiday in Nepal, and on my Gulf Air flight I caught The Brothers Bloom (Dir: Rian Johnson, 2008). Well blow me if I haven't been on the edge of my seat about this film since I first heard about it. Which feels like years now. I had a bit of a kip on the flight and it was half an hour in by the time I started watching it. So after watching the credits I let it play through again and caught the first half hour. So then on getting back to London I got super excited that it must be out in cinemas, or nearly out, and that I would rush to see it as fast as my little legs could get me to the multiplex.



But here came the nasty surprise. I would not be tottering to the multiplex or anywhere else, because the film doesn't have UK distribution. WHAT?!? The mind boggles, because from what I could make out on the tiny, rubbishy little plane screen, this film might well be a work of genius. My excitement, long built up, for this film might easily have been toppled by excitement, and yet it was not. In fact, having seen it once I might actually be even more so. But where will I get my next fix? Nowhere, apparently. Nowhere. Gah!



I'm not quite sure why no one wants it. Brick was pretty awesome, and critically acclaimed. And Rian Johnson seems to be being hailed as a director to watch. So what's the beef?

Well, I'll stop moaning anyway, and talk instead about how utterly wonderful I found the film. Wouldn't that be far nicer? Yes, I thought so.



There is something so utterly charming and fairy tale like about it. A whimsical atmosphere that just suffuses it with excitement and sweetness, and yet it is also prerry dark and perverse and willfully naughty at the same time. And that combination is right up my street!

The film inhabits a reality that isn't quite ours, entirely specific to itself. This affectation is almost reminiscent of the kind of worlds created by Wes Anderson and while I love his films and the worlds he creates, there definitely feels to be less pretension or superiority, or... something, in Johnson's creation.

Maybe because the characters appear to have such a wide eyed outlook on the world. An enthusiasm and a pleasure in the simplest of things that seems quite fresh and delightful. But whatever it is I was utterly drawn in.



There is something quite familiar about the plot machinations, the back story and the set up call to mind a number of different films, and that familiarity almost gives you a feeling that you know what is going to happen and that it is like a fairy story that you have heard a thousand times before and is comforting in its familiarity. Which of course allows the film to quietly pull the rug out from under you without you even noticing.

Because it is quite dark in parts, and what seem like happy endings are not necessarily to be trusted. But the films desire to play with that leaving you both satisfied and a little unnerved is one of the things that ends up making it so unique and interesting.



One of the things that excited me most about the film when I first heard about it was the cast.

I am a die hard fan of Mark Ruffalo, having first fallen at his feet when I saw You Can Count on Me, and Adrien Brody is just so heart breaking in almost everything he does. So the combination was pretty thrilling for me. It probably didn't hurt too much that they are both pretty dreamy to look at too...!



You know...?!



Then Rinko Kikuchi's next role after Babel (which, whisper it, I was otherwise pretty underwhelmed by) was going to be worth watching. But more of Miss Kikuchi later.

And they didn't let me down. They also seemed as though they were having a blast. You know, really getting a kick out of the film, which is always enjoyable to watch. It was particularly nice to see Rachel Weisz in it as I just feel as though she never gets a role that is quite right for her. They are either horribly lightweight or a bit grim. But she was lovely and playful and adventurous and fun and I liked her just fine!



The plot is like a dark little twisted fairy tale, but one that is innocently told. It is not really like anything I have seen before. It is silly and frivolous and delightfully entertaining. Its lack of distributor boggles the mind as I am sure there is an audience for it.



The styling of the film is definitely one of its hightlights and most easily demonstrated in the styling of Rinko Kikuchi. She is so quirky and marvellous. Not least because her character's name is Bang Bang.



And she loves blowing things up.



And she wears lashings of red lipstick and has a fag dangling from her lips at all times and that she doesn't speak but still makes herself abundantly clear.



I don't know that I remember a character whose styling I have preferred.



So all in all, I can't say enough about this film. It ticks all the boxes for what I am looking for in a cinematic experience, except, you know, the cinema...

Two Lovers (James Gray, 2008)

I haven't really felt the urge to watch James Gray's earlier films. His interest in people being torn apart by their desire to preserve or corrupt the law just doesn't get me hot under the collar. But for some reason Two Lovers (Dir: James Gray, 2008) lured me in, and I'm so glad it did as I found it a really different, thought provoking, affecting and mature film.

I can be an absolute sucker for a well made chick flick. Priceless with Audrey Tatou is the lightest piece of fluff but I love it all the same. What I don't love about chick flicks is that the depiction of relationships and love are so utterly unrealistic. While we want a bit of escapism, of course, the tendency to gloss over the real life trials and tribulations of finding that one person mean they end up as lightweight fantasy and nothing more.



This is certainly not the problem in Two Lovers. While the central themes are love and relationships the vision is almost unremittingly bleak and for the most part focuses on how they can fuck you up. The film starts with the main character Leonard attempting suicide and then he reconsiders it again later in the film. It tackles loving the wrong person, of whether or not you should open yourself up to love without a consideration for being hurt, how people justify adultery, and the ease rather than the passion of falling in love with a convenient person. It almost feels like a French film the way it takes time over its subject, it is unpeturbed to be examining the minutiae and mundanities that can sometimes be life and love.

But it is undeniably an American film, being set as it is in a Jewish neighbourhood in the far reaches of Brooklyn. But even this sets it apart. While we are so used to seeing New York on the big and small screen to the extent that it is almost a cliche there are still areas of New York that are less familar to a cinema going audience. Brooklyn mostly seems to be depicted as a poor and gritty borough if it is seen on screen at all. But here there is something that is both whimsical, delicately real as we see through Leonard's beautiful and stark black and white photographs, but also representing a trap, an area that people are attached to but also yearn to leave.

Brooklyn is becoming more and more what I think of when I think of New York, with all of my New Yorker friends now living there, and I really can't get enough of seeing it, even though it makes me pine for it and them desperately.


Joaquin Phoenix is startlingly good as Leonard. I have read some reviews that say he is a revelation, but I think he has always had that. Ever since To Die For I have had a real crush on his acting chops. And this is another great, meaty part for him to get them into. Comparing the two characters reveals just how different they are, but he nails them both. What Jimmy and Leonard have in common, though, is a vulnerability and willing to wear their hearts on their sleeve in an almost disturbingly naive way. Even though you can see the mistakes that Leonard makes before he even makes them your heart bleeds for him, and you want him to get what he wants even though you know it will all end in tears.

Which it does. And it doesn't. This is another great thing that makes this film really stand out for me. The ending. Through the second half of the film I was filled with a sense of dread and the final moments stopped me in my tracks to such a degree that even some time after watching the film I don't yet know whether the end is the most glorious end to a film almost ever, or depressing and frustrating and heartbreaking. I think my inability to work it out suggests that it is both. I won't give it away, but if you watch it or have already seen it please share your thoughts.




When it comes to the love interests I found both of the performances outstanding. It is quite rare for a film to have such complicated female roles, but I think I have established that this film is quite unique. Gwyneth Paltrow's character is infinitely more glamourous and screwed up, but she is played believably and you can understand Leonard's draw to a beautiful but unstable woman. It is nice to see Gwyneth actually acting again, and in a pretty gritty role that reminds just what a good actress she can be. Vinessa Shaw's character is the polar opposite but equally well developed and while her neuroses might be better hidden she definitely reveals them and proves to be a real character in her own right, not just a foil for Gwyneth's louder one.

The family setting that much of the film takes place in really grounds the film, giving it an atmosphere of normality, but also of quiet dignity. It feels totally real in a way that few films achieve.

And of course, the mother is played by the indomitable Isabella Rossellini. How glorious it is to see her beautiful face growing old gracefully. I really do adore her!

So, goodness me, I seem to have banged on rather. But even a couple of months after watching this film I am still in love with it. So my recommendation would be to rent it immediately. Although probably best not to if you are feeling at all emotionally fragile, I'm sure there is some chick flick that would be a better diversion...