Appearing in Toronto with The Brothers Bloom, actress Rachel Weisz plays Penelope, a lonely orphaned heiress who, targeted to be taken for a ride by the title con artists (Adrian Brody and Mark Ruffalo) discovers a brand new sense of joy in the world, even as she's being fleeced. "I had wanted to do something funny for a long time, and I think when I read The Brothers Bloom, I thought "This is one of the funniest things I've ever read. ..." Weisz spoke with Cinematical in Toronto about her character's journey, learning how to play the harp for a throwaway comedy bit, co-starring with Brody and Ruffalo and much, much more.

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After years of turning down any and all parties who inquired after the film rights for his novel Blindness, Nobel Prize-winning novelist Jose Saramago finally relented to the director-writer team of Fernando Meirelles and Don McKellar after years of cajoling and convincing. McKellar also has a part in the final film, a sprawling story of ruin and redemption that spanned the globe in its production that's been significantly re-cut -- and significiantly improved -- from the version first unveilled in Cannes in May. McKellar spoke with Cinematical in Toronto about the re-cut version of the film, the secret thread between his brilliant directorial debut Last Night and Blindness (" ... my paranoia about the apocalypse hadn't been resolved yet ..."), how Hurricane Katrina influenced the look of Blindness, the need for humor at the end of the world and much more. ...

Cinematical's podcast content is now available through iTunes; you can subscribe at this link. Also, you can listen directly here at Cinematical by clicking below:



As ever, you can download the entire podcast right here -- and those of you with RSS Podcast readers can find all of Cinematical's podcast content at this link.

Last night, James and I had tickets to the TIFF premiere of Blindness, adapted from the Nobel Prize-winning book by José Saramago. James reviewed Blindness when we saw the film at Cannes, but I'd heard through the Telluride grapevine that the film had undergone a substantial edit since then. The cut we saw back in May was overlayed with a heavy, expositional voiceover throughout that completely killed the film, which I otherwise had liked quite a bit. So when I heard there was a re-edit playing here at TIFF, I knew we had to see it.

I'm happy to report that the newly edited version of Blindness is a vast improvement over what we saw at Cannes. Not only did director Fernando Meirelles (who also made one of the best films ever, City of God) remove the irritating and distracting voiceover, but as a result of doing so had to significantly re-cut, and in the process ended up with a much, much better film. He's tightened it up a lot, particularly a very troublesome bit concerning a major character arc shift for Julianne Moore's character, The Doctor's Wife, which was one of the parts I most had trouble with at Cannes. And while the film's running time is about the same, it now paces much quicker and thus feels like a tauter, shorter film that's much more engaging.

Long awaited in the wake of his 2005 debut Brick, Rian Johnson's The Brothers Bloom is a magic trick of a film; the second it's over, you want to see it again so you can try to catch how you were tricked, but you also want to see it again so you can return to the joy and wonder of being wrapped up in the nimble, deck-shuffling hands of a born showman. Watching it at first, some of The Brothers Bloom's creative and thematic elements seem like they're on loan from Paul Thomas Anderson (opening narration by Ricky Jay, pop-whiz-bang camera work, the troubled-but-tender relationship between the two brothers) while others feel as if they've been cribbed from Wes Anderson (deadpan confessions, whimsical set design, a parallel-universe setting where people still travel to Europe by steamship). The truth is, as much as The Brothers Bloom may feel like it's cribbing from other films at first, this is Rian Johnson's movie, and even if my more dreary and discerning critical faculties told me the final act goes on, perhaps, a beat too long, my inner moviegoer was sitting bolt upright, smiling, bright-eyed and carried away.

Brothers Stephen (Mark Ruffalo) and Bloom (Adrian Brody) have grown up on the make, in a world of, as Jay's stage-setting narration puts it, "... grifters, ropers, faro fixers, tales drawn long and tall. ..." Stephen builds cons; Bloom gets close to the marks. Stephen's work on their scams is a weird, lucrative form of self-expression; as Bloom puts it, "My brother writes cons the way Russians write novels. ..." Bloom's work on their schemes is a weird, lucrative form of self-loathing; Bloom learns early on that playing a part means never having to be yourself, that he, when " ... being as he wasn't, could be as he wished to be." Stephen wants more. Bloom wants out.

Cinematical is excited to bring you these brand new exclusive images from The Brothers Bloom (see gallery below), which will enjoy a premiere at the 2008 Toronto International Film Festival this month. The film, which marks writer-director Rian Johnson's follow-up to the much-beloved Brick, stars Adrien Brody and Mark Ruffalo as "the best con men in the world" who, for their one last job, decide to take a beautiful and eccentric heiress (Rachel Weisz) on a trip around the world. The delightful Rinko Kikuchi (pictured in the gallery below) also stars. We here at Cinematical are big fans of Johnson's Brick (that kinda sounds weird, huh?), and have been looking forward to The Brothers Bloom for quite some time now. While those lucky ducks currently in Toronto will get to see the film early (we'll have our review soon), the rest of us will have to wait till it hits theaters on December 19.

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If I know our Eugene Novikov at all, his face is like mine in that it registers somewhere between the two pictured at the right when it comes to the news that The Brothers Bloom, writer-director Rian Johnson's follow-up to his nifty noir Brick, has been bumped back from October 24th (an admittedly crowded weekend) to a limited bow on December 19th, followed by a wide release on January 16th of 2009.

When the fairly reliable Box Office Mojo first mentioned the change, I balked at the thought, but now Johnson has confirmed it on his own message board, saying "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."

Wait -- what's that? Eugene gets to see it in a week's time up at Toronto? Excuse me, but I'm suddenly feeling much more like Bang Bang...

Despite a lack of any real range, Mark Ruffalo is one of my favorite actors -- it's just so easy to identify with the affable schlub character he's made his forte. He's always seemed like a smart guy -- he's made smart choices -- so I'm looking forward to his just-announced directorial debut, the bizarrely titled Sympathy for Delicious. Ruffalo will co-star with James Franco and screenwriter Chris Thornton.

It's hard to know what to make of the premise. "Delicious" is actually the name of a DJ, played by Thornton, who becomes paralyzed and apparently homeless in Los Angeles. He toys with faith healing and discovers the ability to heal people (though not himself), which makes him famous. Ruffalo plays a Jesuit priest who tries to help him; Franco a rock star who tries to exploit him."

I believe we're talking about this Chris Thornton, whose most significant credit is a part in Pretty Persuasion, and who is handicapped in real life following a rock-climbing fall. The all-seeing, all-knowing IMDb claims he's best friends with Ruffalo. The movie sounds like something that might get trapped in the festival circuit, though we'll see -- Franco's presence might help.

Sympathy for Delicious shoots this fall.

UPDATE: Here's the trailer in Quicktime quality.

Of all the films I'm looking forward to this fall, Blindness ranks fairly high up there. Canadian distributor Alliance has just made available a full trailer that proves to be fairly intriguing, as an optometrist (Mark Ruffalo) and his seemingly immune wife (Julianne Moore) cope with an inexplicable epidemic of sight loss.

I'm a sucker for most anything vaguely apocalyptic, and while this very well could turn out to be akin to watching the first act of Children of Men through a milk-filled mask (which I've done, mind you), the prestige behind the project* says otherwise. We have acclaimed screenwriter Don McKellar adapting Nobel-Laureate José Saramago's novel, with Academy Award nominee Fernando Meirelles directing a cast that also includes Danny Glover, Gael Garcia Bernal, Alice Braga, and Sandra Oh.

I must say, going off that taste and last spring's teaser, I still like the look, sound, and feel of this one, especially Moore's little retort (you know the one), and that's not to mention that any trailer which employs John Murphy's underrated score from last year's Sunshine to set a rightfully ominous tone is always fine by me. We'll get to see (sorry) what trials and tribulations await the world on September 19th.

*Not to mention Rocchi's review of the film from its Cannes world premiere.

Just over a week ago, Jessica shared a few far-off, behind-the-fence pics of Ashecliffe, the project formerly known as Shutter Island. There was a shot of Leonardo DiCaprio and Martin Scorsese, and now, over at Just Jared, there are close-up peeks of Leo, plus cast members Michelle Williams and Mark Ruffalo. If you remember, this is the 1950s drama about a US Marshal who investigates the disappearance of a murderess from a hospital for the criminally insane, a woman who might be hiding on Shutter Island.

JJ pointed out that it looks like Ms. Williams could be pregnant in this picture, which would put a whole sadder spin on her character's story arc. As Patrick pointed out when the actress signed up for the role -- Leo's character (the US Marshal) "is grieving over the recent death of his wife, who was killed in a fire by one of the inhabitants of the facility."

Between this and Incendiary, Williams has a lot of familial death on the way, which is even eerier considering the events of this year. But luckily, she's also got films like Synecdoche, New York to balance things out.

Cinematical has just received this exclusive poster for Blindness (click to enlarge), which enjoyed its world premiere as the opening night film of this year's Cannes Film Festival back in May. Starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael García Bernal, Blindness tells of a city overcome by a blindness epidemic where its citizens are stricken with instant "white blindness." As folks are quarantined off in an abandoned mental hospital, one woman who remains unaffected pretends to be sick in order to take care of her husband, a doctor, who's now blind. Based on Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's novel, and directed by the very talented Fernando Meirelles (The Constant Gardener), Blindness definitely looks to bring the creep factor -- and with this outstanding cast, I'm sure it will claim a spot as this fall's first great flick.

Don't close your eyes for too long, because Blindness hits theaters on September 19.

I'll always remember reading a review of Casino where a reviewer said that even a mediocre Martin Scorsese movie is better than the 'best' movie made by any other director. That particular piece of wisdom has always stuck with me whenever I was plunking down my hard earned dollars on a Scorsese film that wasn't necessarily 'my thing' -- cough, Kundun, cough. So with that in mind, you can be sure that I'll be there on opening day for his new thriller, Ashecliffe (formerly Shutter Island). The Boston Herald recently scored some pictures of star Leonardo DiCaprio and Scorsese on the set of the period thriller, with the added bonus of getting to see DiCaprio brandishing some firearms (thankfully, it was for the movie).

The film is based on a novel by Dennis Lehane (Mystic River), and centers on two U.S. marshals who are sent to investigate the disappearance of a patient from a hospital for the criminally insane. Things start to go downhill when a riot on the island has them trapped, and not to mention some events that are outside of the realm of the everyday. Mark Ruffalo joins the cast as DiCaprio's partner, and Michelle Williams also stars as DiCaprio's wife. The film immediately brings Spellbound to mind, and knowing what a Hitchcock fan Scorsese is, I will look forward to seeing Scorsese work in a few of those 'master of suspense' touches.

Ashcliffe is scheduled to arrive in theaters on October 2nd, 2009.

I sat in on a roundtable luncheon for the film Blindness the other day; as far as roundtables go, it was a nice affair; there were four tables of journalists, and they rotated the talent through the tables, giving us about 15 minutes with each set. It's always interesting to me to talk to the actors and filmmaker about a film like this; it gives you a different perspective that you have from just watching the film.

A word of caution: There are spoilers in these interviews about certain aspects of the film, but I'm including them because they provide a good deal of context about the film and the motivations of the characters. If you prefer to go into seeing the film blind, as it were, you'll not want to read this until after you've seen it. If you do want to learn more about the film, the interview writeup is after the jump ...

They've come a long way -- Mark Ruffalo and Amy Adams. For years, we got lots of Ruffalass as each film Mark took on seemed to have the obligatory bare butt. It got to the point where me and my friends would wait for that inevitable moment. Amy Adams, meanwhile, has come even farther. From 1999-2000 it looked like her path was set after Drop Dead Gorgeous, Psycho Beach Party, and Cruel Intentions 2. Then she got an Oscar nomination and suddenly she wasn't the goofy blonde girl, but rather an actress with one wide-ranging skillset. So, what's next?

The Hollywood Reporter posts that Ruffalo and Adams have signed on to star in Noah Baumbach's (The Squid and the Whale) next feature, called Greenburg. The plot is being kept under wraps, but it's said to be some sort of relationship dramedy that's getting shopped around in Cannes, and is hoping to start production later this year. Greenburg ... Is this a town? A name? Who knows.

Whatever scenario Baumbach has schemed up, it sounds like a great combination to me.

This morning James and I and a couple thousand other press folks took in a screening of the Opening Film at Cannes 2008, Fernando Meirelles's Blindness, starring Julianne Moore, Mark Ruffalo, Danny Glover and Gael Garcia Bernal. You can check out James' review here, and tomorrow I'll be attending a luncheon/roundtable for the film. And in related Cannes news, Jack Black arrived at the 2008 Festival de Cannes in style. He's here to promote Kung Fu Panda, which premieres later in the week. Check out our gallery of Black and tons of panda bears down below.

Meantime, though, my take on Blindness is that it's ambitious and good, but falls short of being great. In part, I think, this is because the source material was challenging to adapt to a visual experience, but it's also due to some clunky expositional voiceover that detracts from the experience more than it adds. I don't want to be told how this or that person feels or reacts, I want to see it.

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Fernando Meirelles's new film Blindness begins with the rush and push of urban life; traffic, crowds, activity, purpose. And then, one man cries out: "I'm blind." He eventually makes it to an ophthalmologist, but there's nothing physically wrong with his eyes; he simply can't see. "It feels like I'm swimming in milk," he explains, and we see, through his eyes, the blank, empty swirl of what used to be the world. And then another person says they are blind, and then another, and soon those few, frightened voices form a chorus of chaos as "the White Sickness" spreads like wildfire and leaves a ruined world in its wake.

Adapting Nobel Prize winner Jose Saramago's novel, Blindness feels like a curious mix of highbrow literary aspirations and lowbrow genre fiction; as the White Sickness spreads from person to person in a clear chain of connection and things fall apart, it'd be easy to dismiss Blindness as Dawn of the Dead for NPR listeners or Outbreak for grad students. Meirreles has taken a similar two-pronged approach before -- The Constant Gardener is an excellent critique of the failings of modern capitalism that also works as a strong, suspenseful thriller -- and while Blindness may not work as well as that film, it's also a clear case of a film, and filmmaker, failing to hit the mark occasionally only because they've set the bar so high for themselves.