The problem with a press conference concerning a film about con men is you never know who, exactly, is telling the truth. Such was the case with Tuesday morning’s raucous presser for The Brothers Bloom, which debuts Tuesday night at the Toronto International Film Festival.

The first audience question, about director Rian Johnson’s website, sparked calls from co-star Adrien Brody that the journalist was actually a plant.

“She’s in on it,” insisted Brody. “Actually, he paid her to ask it.”

“This is all a con!” said Johnson.

Brody and Mark Ruffalo star as the titular brothers, though in the film Brody is addressed by his last name while Ruffalo is saddled with an actual first name, Stephen. These siblings aren’t dirty rotten scoundrels but rather gentlemen con artists, living the high life in Europe with fine wine, impeccable clothes, and good company. Of course, they decide to go for the perfect con; in this case an eccentric, epileptic photographer, pseudo-hermit played by Rachel Weisz. However, in their attempt to con this mark out of a cool million or so, Brody goes and falls in love with her, threatening to ruin the entire plan. Read more…

TORONTO - Being an actor is akin to being a con man, says actor Mark Ruffalo.

“You’re trying to get someone to like you. You’re trying to convince them of something. You pull one over on someone,” says Ruffalo, who’s in Toronto with not one, but two festival galas: Blindness, the adaptation of Jose Saramago’s apocalyptic novel and the The Brothers Bloom, a colourful comic drama featuring Oscar winners Rachel Weisz and Adrien Brody that premiered here at the Toronto International Film Festival yesterday.

The secret ingredient to making both games work is confidence, and though Ruffalo plays a career con in Brothers Bloom, he says it was a daunting challenge.

“I never really saw myself as Stephen, the confident one. I saw myself as Bloom, the more romantic, damaged one. That comes naturally to me,” he says. Read more…

TORONTO — Mark Ruffalo had a criminal acquaintance to help him prep for his role as a con man in the quirky comedy “The Brothers Bloom,” having its world premiere at the Toronto International Film Festival.

“I know a diamond thief,” the affable American actor, who plays lead grifter Stephen in the surreal globetrotting adventure, admitted with a grin at a roundtable interview at the festival on Friday.

“I’ve known him for a long time and a lot of Stephen is based on this guy. He’s a total con man,” said Ruffalo, who has two other films at the festival this year: “Blindness” and “What Doesn’t Kill You.”

“He’s not just a diamond thief, he was a complete con his whole life - a hustler and the most charming, fun, gregarious, fantastic, bigger-than-life person that I’ve ever come across - and so I oftentimes would think, ‘How would he handle this situation?”‘

“The Brothers Bloom,” set for wide release on Jan. 16, stars Ruffalo and Adrien Brody as swindling but charming siblings who stage elaborate schemes around the world. Read more…

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. Read more…