Movies That Rock: The Brothers Bloom

I hope you all had an awesome Labor Day weekend! I went up north with my family and hung out for a few days. We got home late last night and I felt kinda cruddy, which led to me being up all night throwing up. Hoorah. On a positive note my favorite movie of all time was on HBO so I just watched it while downing Gatorade and saltines, and now I feel like sharing how awesome it is!

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The movie is based on brothers Stephen (played by Mark Ruffalo, Swoon) and Bloom (played by Adrien Brody). Pushed around foster homes as kids the two quickly learned how to con and con well, creating a vivid and creative life. Stephen is always the mastermind who adds in every detail of the story, mostly focused around Bloom. As adults they work their way to the top of the con world joined by their mysterious explosives expert named Bang Bang, played by the awesome Rinko Kikuchi (a la Pacific Rim). When we meet the three Bloom has decided he is weary of a "written life" and wants to strike out on his own and create his own identity in the real world. His brother convinces him to do one last job and Bloom reluctantly agrees, because really, he could never said no to anything Stephen says.

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Their mark is a shut in, eccentric, lonely and beautiful New Jersey heiress, Penelope Stamp. Stamp is played by the wonderful Rachel Weisz. Penelope's primary past-time in life is to, as she calls it, "borrow hobbies": when she sees something she likes, she learns how to do it solely through reading books. She has never left her house in New Jersey, so when the brothers arrive, she falls for their con immediately. Although, con or not, anything to get her out of her shut-in life is motivation enough for her.

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The con is simple, to sweep Penelope off her feet in an adventure smuggling stolen antiques while winding through Greece, Prague, and Mexico. They enlist the help of crazy characters along the way, one being Robbie Coltrane (Hagrid yay!) During the con they encounter a slew of problems, but my favorite is Penelope herself. She's unpredictable, adorable, and my absolute favorite part of the Brothers Bloom. The end leaves you wondering who's actually coning who.

The cinematography is beautiful and the lines are amazing.  I highly recommend you go watch it right now. Like right now.

I'll leave you with this:

"This was a story about a girl who could find infinite beauty in anything, any little thing, and even love the person she was trapped with. And I told myself this story until it became true. Now, did doing this help me escape a wasted life? Or did it blind me so I didn't want to escape it? I don't know, but either way I was the one telling my own story..."