One of the reasons why I love The Brothers Bloom, is because the film cons the audience. The Brothers Bloom is a story about two brothers, disguised as a love story, disguised as a con movie. The perfect con is where everyone involved gets what they wanted. By the time the credits roll, you will be happy to have experienced a film you weren’t expecting.

The Brothers Bloom have been in the con game since they were young children. Now, along with their speechless explosive expert sidekick Bang Bang, have become the best con team in the world. Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) writes his cons “like dead Russians write novels, full of thematic arks and symbolism.” Now in his 30’s, Bloom (Adrien Brody) wants out of the Con game, hoping to live a real story for a change. But he is lured into one last con, to trick an eccentric shut-in rich woman named Penelope Stamp (Rachel Weisz), out of millions of dollars. But when Bloom falls for the mark, the con begins to unravel.

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Rian Johnson’s (BRICK) second movie, THE BROTHERS BLOOM has unfortunately been bumped back from an October 24th release to a limited release on December 19th, followed by a wide release on January 16th 2009. Johnson himself explained the situation via his blog:

“There were a few reasons for the move: October and November are crowded as hell, it’s a tough tough market, especially for a smart unique film like ours, and we’d have a week or two at the most to sink or swim. Whereas concentrating on a couple markets for awards consideration in December, then pushing the wide in the more open January slot just seemed like a better use of resources.”

Johnson also discussed the key role that film festivals would play in promoting the film:

There are alot of films competing for attention, the more time I have to travel around to film festivals, do interviews, show and talk about the film, the better. And that’s the one consolation I can give: I’m going to be doing the rounds at a TON of regional US festivals, I’m hoping to hit nearly every big one that happens between now and the release. So if you live near a big city with a festival, chances are you’ll get a shot at seeing it before January.

The film will be screened at the Toronto Film Festival.