The Brothers Bloom

In the movie, Bloom describes the perfect con as this: "Each one involved gets just the thing they wanted." THE BROTHERS BLOOM, then, is the perfect con. The actors get to flex their muscles, the director gets to make a memorable movie, and the audience gets to hop aboard a bewilderingly beautiful ride. Lyrically told and lushly photographed, the film could easily have turned out frivolous, stylized, and forgettable -- a jaunty travelogue/heist movie -- but thanks to writer-director Rian Johnson, it's dense and satisfying, eager to mine emotional truths from characters who are master fibbers. Credit a script that, though sometimes crowded with trickery, isn't afraid to be complicated. The storytelling is masterful, and the movie's romantic in a way that most heist movies aren't -- the love story is just as important, if not more so, than the scams. (Make that love stories: The central brotherhood is an involving examination of familial love.)

Brody reminds audiences why he won the Oscar (for The Pianist) with a performance that's full of nuance and meaning, and Ruffalo manages to balance humor and drama in a role that a lesser actor might have approached with too much showmanship. And Weisz? She mesmerizes. As a shut-in ready to take on the world, she's eccentric but profound, maddening but likable. It's easy to see why Bloom is smitten. By the movie's end, you will be, too.