Brody in Bloom

Adrien Brody’s latest star turn, in “The Brothers Bloom,”
transforms the Oscar-winning actor into Bloom, a conflicted con man whose brother
Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) persuades him to do one last grift before they retire.

By: Jenni Miller *

Unfortunately the hapless Bloom falls in love with the woman they’re supposed to be conning, a slightly batty heiress named Penelope (Rachel Weisz) who spends her free time crashing cars, teaching herself to play a wide variety of musical instruments and creating pinhole cameras out of watermelons.

“The Brothers Bloom,” which was written and directed by Rian Johnson of “Brick” (2005), is a globe-trotting, glamorous romantic comedy punctuated by explosions, thanks to the brothers’ sidekick, Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi). It’s now in limited release, with a wide opening set for Jan. 16.

QUESTION: Last night I was thinking, why is it named “The Brothers Bloom,” when “Bloom” is your character’s first name, not the brothers’ last name? And then I thought maybe it was a verb -- the brothers bloom.
ADRIEN BRODY: Ahhh. That’s very good. That’s probably a good question for Rian, but maybe it’s true too. Because I’m also referred to as Bloom, which would mean, what, my (name is) Bloom Bloom?
Bloom is blooming? It’s a verb.

Q: Did that occur to you?
BRODY: No. (laughs) It’s awesome ... It’s great, actually. I like that.

Q: Can you compare and contrast the relationship Bloom has with his brother, Stephen, to the relationship between the brothers played by you, Owen Wilson and Jason Schwartzman in “The Darjeeling Limited” (2007)?
BRODY: I think there are some similarities, in some respect. Obviously there’s the older-brother syndrome going on, where there’s a bit of overshadowing going on by the older brothers.
But the real issue for Bloom is that he’s an orphan and he really had no father figure, and the only influences he really had were probably through Stephen and being thrust into these concocted characters.
And I think that caused problems for him, because he was probably very uncomfortable dealing with the real world and that was a crutch for him, but once the stories ended and the cons were over, he didn’t know who he was.
And in a sense that’s the struggle for the three brothers in that other film: They’ve lost their father, and now they’re trying to come to terms with who they are. They’re all kind of having a crisis.
But Bloom is far more tragic, and he’s a much less fortunate human being. The wonderful thing in Bloom is that he finds that redemption in Penelope and finds this girl (who) is almost the anti-Bloom, who is this self-made (person), full of enthusiasm yet also sheltered in her own way, and the two of them unite and (are) kind of perfect for each other, even though they’re almost opposites.

Q: Penelope could have been such a flat, typical kind of kooky character, but Rachel Weisz really makes her so ...
BRODY: Three-dimensional.

Q: But at the same time it’s also slapstick in some ways. How was the car-crash scene performed, when you’re flying over the windshield? You didn’t really do that, did you?
BRODY: Not quite. I did fly though the air, and they filmed it on a lower angle. But I landed on boxes, not the concrete, and they cut to me just falling onto the ground.
But it was well done. I thought it was really cool. That was really fun.

Q: “The Brothers Bloom” was pushed back from October to December. Was that for Oscar season?
BRODY: I don’t know. I don’t think so. I don’t know.

Q: So tell me about your upcoming projects, especially the Dario Argento horror movie “Giallo,” which you’re executive producing?
BRODY: It was exciting, it was an opportunity. I like Dario very much -- I’m a fan of his films and I’m friends with Asia, his daughter. She’s a great actor.
You know, the way that I view work these days is, I like to experiment, try different things ... My girlfriend (Elsa Pataky) was actually offered the role first, and my instinct was, because of the nature of her character (who is kidnapped by a serial killer), I thought it was very tough for her to go through, and she should really give it a lot of consideration and possibly not do it. Part of the reason I signed on as a producer was to protect her. (laughs)
And then I joined up, and the character that I play is a detective that’s looking to rescue her, so in a sense my motivation follows in the character, so we thought that was quite an interesting thing.

Q: I can understand your concern. Argento’s roles for women can be a little ... intense.
BRODY: Yeah, and it is intense what she has to go through.
And, you know, she’s tough and game, so it’s her call, but I wanted to be there. (laughs) Supervise.
Q: Did you ever want to shout “No!” and stop everything?
BRODY: No, because it’s different when you’re on set. First of all, people are very respectful and, you know, things often look much harsher than they are. Sometimes they’re pretty harsh to go through, but it was remarkably fun to make a movie that dark for it to be fun.
I think you just get carried away with that kind of enthusiasm that Dario has for those things. It was really a great experience.
Q: You have another film in theaters at the moment.
BRODY: “Cadillac Records,” which is pretty great. Blues era, Leonard Chess, Muddy Waters ...

Q: You also have the sci-fi movie “Splice” coming up. That’s kind of different.
BRODY: Again, it’s different things, (trying to) find roles and genres that I like that are fun and explore different territory for me. It’s a family movie, family sci-fi situation.