(USA) Directed by Rian Johnson. Stars Adrien Brody, Mark Ruffalo, Rachel Weisz and Rinko Kikuchi. Continuing.

The latest con-job caper, The Brothers Bloom, is one hell of a roller coaster ride. Filmmaker Rian Johnson hoodwinks audiences into believing that they’d nail the plot by leading them up the garden path, before throwing a sideways blow. Yet, despite its fairly intelligent plot, the convoluted movie frustrates more than amuses with its bland dialogue.

The movie kicks off promisingly by introducing young Stephen and Bloom—two major pains in the butt to their 38 foster families—and their first perfect con. As their talk recalls on what makes their most recent job count as perfect, audiences will no doubt clue in to the fact that we are meant to memorize these important dropped clues, for later reflection.

Fast forward 20 years and Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (the charming Adrien Brody) are now dandy fraudsters in crisp lined suits. They’ve also earned a sidekick, the cornily-named Bang Bang (Rinko Kikuchi in a mute flower-vase role) who has a serious case of explosion-itis.

Ruffalo manages to pull off Stephen’s mastermind character with his debonair attitude. Brody, while excellent as the emotional Bloom, is crippled by a character that, himself, has an identity crisis. In truth, Brody deserves better roles, not helped by the fact that his career has been in free-fall since his Oscar-winning stint in The Pianist. The effervescent Rachel Weisz provides much comic relief as Penelope Stamp, the obligatory “one last job.” Stamp is an eccentric multi-billionaire heiress whose achievement includes crashing four Lamborghinis and whose dubious skills run the gamut from harp-playing to chainsaw-juggling. Naturally, Bloom is smitten with Penelope. But what’s a boy to do when your target of affection is your “last job”?

Johnson’s previous film, Brick, was a critically-acclaimed film noir classic, but The Brothers Bloom remains confused, like Bloom himself, as to what kind of film it is supposed to be. Unfortunately, that’s how audiences will leave feeling too, uncertain as to under which shelf this film will sit, eventually, in the DVD store.—3 stars by Walter Sim