Let me open by saying, outright, that Rian Johnson’s debut film-noir/high school crossover, Brick, absolutely floored me. I saw, in that film, a true homage built on and aimed at, a love for a genre that was somehow beyond affection. A great movie and a story that portrayed a specialised and well crafted knack for dialogue and plot that even Tarantino couldn’t muster.

It had a small powerful heart. There was no pretension or slyness that tied itself to the film (yes there was a style and a theme which enhanced it for effect…) but it seamed to have a pulse and a life of its own without immediately prodding you, self consciously, to do nothing but remember other films. Despite the numerous allusions to Dasheil Hammet’s writing and film noir as a whole it stood up on its own two legs. It lived inside an overly revisited genre but remained absolutely original to itself.

It’s taken Johnson nearly 5 years to follow up his debut and he’s settled, again on a twisting double crossing crime caper but this time of a completely different ilk. He decided on something lighter and more mainstream, something which, in the own director’s words, lies somewhere between Dirty Rotten Scoundrels and James Joyce’s Ulysses.

The Brother’s Bloom harnesses the mumbling and brilliant Mark Ruffalo (That old scene stealer from Zodiac, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind and the tragically under seen You Can Count on Me), the equally brilliant, lanky, dead pan, horse faced, Oscar Wining  jingle-jangle man, Adrian Brody and the beautiful and talented Rachel Weisz. A dream cast for a second film… surely.

The opening introduces us to two, family switching, trouble making orphans, Bloom & Stephen in a Scorseese / P.T Anderson / Wes Anderson style homage which feels and sounds great but, ultimately lends itself to so many other films it feels kind of forced but non the less clever. The two discover their knack for tricking people after fooling a whole town of children and they set down their rule for the con. Everybody gets what they want.

We then jump twenty five years and Stephen and the now miserable and reluctant Bloom, tired of playing the fall guy in his brother’s elaborate schemes, head after one last “mark”; Serial hobbyist and rich girl, Penelope (Weisz), roping her into a smuggling plot which quickly goes awry… or does it. Stephen’s scripting of every con down to the last detail makes it impossible to fully realise where the film or its players are heading until the final 10 minutes. Weisz and Brody’s chemistry is fantastic, her exuberance playing perfectly against Brody’s tired hangdog deadpan’s, Ruffalo is great and the silent but deadly Rinko Kikuchi as Bang Bang is a nice touch.

It a breeze to follow the con team around the world and its great fun to watch but the whole film seems to be missing a certain quality. It’s impossible not to compare Wes Andersons’ eclectically sound-tracked and beautifully paced films to The Brothers Bloom and it could be that Johnson has unknowingly diluted his voice own by perhaps unconsciously developing a style of indie film-making which is slowly becoming a norm, including the now infamous Ricky Jay’s voice over, of which its impossible not to think of Paul Thomas Anderson’s epic Magnolia.

Despite the resemblances The Brothers Bloom is an extremely entertaining film that doesn’t quite live up to the originality of Brick but as a light-hearted con caper on its own, it’s well above par.