| Overall Grade: |
B+ |
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| Story: |
B |
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| Acting: |
A |
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| Direction: |
A |
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| Visuals: |
A |
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All Lovely Things Must Have An Ending.
by mjollnir (movies profile)
May 29, 2009
10
of
12 people found this review helpful
'The Brothers Bloom' is a lovely thing indeed, excellently photographed, delightful to watch, clever in its construction, deft with its sleight-of-hand, beautifully acted (especially by Rachel Weisz, who deserves the Oscar nomination that is never given out for movies of this genre).
'Bloom' is easily the best motion picture so far released this year...save for one (rather vital) element: writer/director Rian Johnson doesn't know how - both as writer and/or director - to end his own screenplay.
The fact that the ending is complicated is not the problem. It's fine for caper movies, based on confidence games, to end in moral ambiguity, puzzlement and complexity.
The problem is this: it ends with a thud. A duulll thud. Without going into detail (can't do that without giving way too much away), things are resolved in a fashion that just leaves you thoroughly dissatisfied, intellectually, emotionally...and visually. The audience is placed in a position of just not being able to willingly suspend their disbelief any more and leave the theater with a feeling of "Is that all there is?"
Johnson may have been actually trying for something like that effect...but if he wanted existential angst that might trigger interest and discussion, he needed to find another way to get there.
'The Brothers Bloom' is another one of those potentially great pictures that's instead going to disappear from the radar real fast... |
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