The Brothers Bloom (Rian Johnson, 2008)

Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo play a pair of con artist brothers scamming their way with schemes of increasing deviousness across Europe. When they undertake to do Rachel Weisz's eccentric rich heiress out of her millions,  the plot starts reeling with its determination to pile twist on top of twist.
A film with so many turns can't fail to be entertaining, but the kookiness of the characterisations, with their anachronistic get-ups and self-consciously quirky foibles makes it wear thin after a while. Like the feats of legerdemain that it accumulates, it's too much top show with nothing underneath to grasp on to. And naming the duo after James Joyce characters is just an example of another gloss that doesn't add substance.

5/10