Jim Emerson over at Scanners blog has often written that many a film can be summed up by its opening scene. And Rian Johnson‘s follow-up to the much lauded Brick, a grifter flick by the name of The Brothers Bloom, certainly makes no bones about laying what the film is about in a wonderful pre-credits sequence. While Rachel Weisz commands the screen as Penelope later on in the film, I must admit, the high point of the film is actually the brother’s first con. It is a mini movie in itself and tells a tale that is high artifice but also contains a nugget of truth on compromise, sacrifice and finding a balance between desire and family. Maybe I’m reading too much into a sequence that delights in foster parents smacking their charges and lingers on a one-legged cat pushing itself in a rollerskate.

Yet I’ll offer three compelling reasons to enjoy the below scene: 1) It is narrated by the master Ricky Jay, who most will recognize his soothing tones and eloquent use of the language from the opening sequence in Magnolia. Another narration knocked out of the ball park. Jay should be doing trailer work if he ever needs the cash to pick up vintage magician paraphernalia. 2) It is the first glimpse of seeing a young Max Records in action. He is the lucky boy who gets to play Max in Spike Jonze‘s Where the Wild things Are. And he kicks ass as the planner/schemer Steven Bloom (heck I’ll say he is better than Mark Ruffalo who plays the older Steven in the film!) 3) Nothing is better in a grifter flick than seeing a well executed con that ends up being both surprising and inevitable (a paradox some might call good ‘showmanship!’) The results? It brings a smile to your face. A smile very hard to resist. A smile you want to share. A smile that lingers with elegant use of slow motion walking away from the screen. Walking away from the delights of being able to casually discard expensive frozen treats: “Let ‘em melt!”

Far too often when a film (particularly a comedy, which The Brothers Bloom both is and is not) opens with ‘young versions’ of the characters (this is often the case in SNL skits blown up to feature films) it is just a lame story device to get the ball rolling. Here it is an effervescent use of the language, narration, film shooting technique (to put the girl out of reach at one point, there is a very nice dolly zoom, for those who care about that stuff), and above all ‘movieness.’ It may make the rest of the film (particularly the closing act) a bit frustrating, but in this case, the opener is all elegance and fun. The way an opener should be.