There aren’t many new names in the film world that dare to stake their reputation on earnest sincerity. Snark and quirk are fast indicators in film with easy payoffs, so what are we to make of a literary filmmaker with the power to create some of the most original works seen in years?

Brick was a look into a time we’d seen before, in a setting we hadn’t. By taking us out of the noir backdrop of the early 1940s and placing us squarely in 2005, Rian Johnson opened our eyes to the new possibilities of a fast-talking amateur detective and beautiful girls with murder on the mind. Johnson gave us a perfectly formed world, and, as all good directors do, let us in to roam around, soaking it all in: every lush detail was ours to consume and examine. His new film, The Brothers Bloom due out in May, is executed with the same loving attention to time and place, and to a strange world that lingers just under the surface of our very own.

The Brothers Bloom are two con men (Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo) out to trap one final mark (Rachel Weisz). Weisz positively illuminates the screen as a flighty, shy heiress with too many talents and not enough love in her life, until the brothers step in, hoping to take off with some of her wealth. But they end up opening her world up, and we discover along with her the small joys of tiny freedoms — freedom from worry, loneliness and secrets, and ultimately, the freedom to fully love and be loved in return.

The Brothers Bloom is a beautiful film. From the far-flung locations to the fantastic costumes, no detail has been overlooked, no line left unpolished. The staging for a con could not be better set from one exotic locale to the next as the brothers and their intrepid band of fashion-forward thieves go from one city to the next, chasing down artifacts, opposing factions, and even working on an impossible card trick.

In such a potentially sprawling film, it is really what Johnson leaves out of the story that makes it more. A heavy-handed script would fail in the groping paws of other actors, but the lightness of Adrien Brody, the charming braggadocio of Mark Ruffalo, the understated finesse of explosions-obsessed Rinko Kicuchi, and the timid hilarity of Rachel Weisz is exactly right — these actors never offer too much or too little. One might expect a veer into the eccentric charisma of Wes Anderson, whose characters are overly costumed and loquacious, but Johnson is no copycat, and has instead trusted us enough to furnish us with real people, not caricatures. In the end, the characters get what is coming to them, and we are left to ask whether what it is that we want is always what is best for ourselves.

The film is surprisingly hilarious, and above all else, wholly good-natured. With not a malicious streak to be found throughout, the film isn’t afraid to be sincere without venturing into the sad hallmark of our times: slick irony. It isn’t often that a film comes along that can be called a real joy to watch, but The Brothers Bloom may be the perfect film for the dark days ahead, when worries threaten to overwhelm. Ultimately centered on simple joys — the love of family, a small task done well, and virtues such as loyalty, truth and beauty — the film’s real strength lies in showing us for a few brief moments the invisible thread that ties us all together.

Here’s the movie trailer, if you’re into that sort of thing:

Tags: brothers bloom, rachel weisz, rian johnson