Fantastic Fest is hosting four “Secret Screenings” of movies that haven’t been released yet, and the first one unspooled last night to a theater full of people who had no idea what they were about to see. Rian Johnson was in town with a print of his movie The Brothers Bloom, and one lucky audience got to see it several months early.

It’s hard to watch Bloom and not think about the world that Wes Anderson’s films inhabit. Places where people travel by steamship, are always immaculately dressed, and consist of extreme caricatures. Johnson’s first feature Brick had that quality, and The Brothers Bloom has it in spades. It’s a fantasy world that Johnson himself probably wouldn’t mind living in, and I’m sure he’d have a fair share of people willing to follow him. At least one theater full of people last night wouldn’t have minded.

Bloom is the story of two brothers, Bloom and Stephen, who bounce from house to house as foster children while cooking up elaborate confidence schemes to line their pockets with. In one of their first successes, they lure the local children to a mud-drenched cave in search of a fairy. Although they are found out and lose the admission ticket cash, they’d previously set up a profit-sharing percentage with the local drycleaner.

What makes these cons work so well are Stephen’s elaborate plans, which often involve hand-drawn flowcharts and maps, and Bloom always serves as his central hook. As a result, Bloom is often the central face of these cons, and it keeps him from getting the girl, and he’s playing puppet to his older brother’s machinations.

Throughout the opening scenes, when the brothers are young, con-artist expert and cardsharp extraordinaire Ricky Jay provides the narration. When we see the brothers again, they’ve aged through the miracle of movie magic into Brody and Ruffalo, and they’ve been joined by a silent third partner, Bang Bang, played by Rinko Kikuchi from Babel. By then they’ve been working the con circuit for years, and have become fairly successful at it.

However, Bloom has become more and more melancholy, and longs for “an unwritten life,” meaning one where his brother hasn’t scripted everything out for him. He wants out of the con business so he can set out on his own. The only problem is, once Stephen grants him this wish, he winds up drunk and running low on cash. Stephen has no trouble finding him, and he lures him back for “one last con and then you’re out.”

Bloom agrees, but the problem is that the he falls for the next mark, eccentric millionaire Penelope (played by Rachel Weisz) and despite his efforts to remain aloof, it throws a monkey wrench into the works. Especially once she discovers that they are con men and she wants to be one as well. That’s where the bulk of the movie takes place.

The only problem with movies about cons, like House of Games, The Spanish Prisoner and even The Sting, is that you’re not quite sure what to believe, because in the end almost everything has been part of the con. Bloom is no different, and at times you realize that you’ve known what was going to happen all along, but it still holds one sad secret in surprise at the very end of the film. At least, it looks like a surprise. It’s doubtful there will ever be a The Brothers Bloom 2: Bloomin’ Onion or anything, but if there is…you won’t be caught off-guard.

I have to admit that I’m not the biggest Adrien Brody fan on the planet, but he manages to charm in his role as the depressed Bloom, and Rachel Weisz somehow finds an entirely untapped well of oddness within her psyche that was probably hinted at back when her librarian character got drunk in The Mummy. She’s disarmingly approachable as a sad and lonely heiress. Ruffalo is cheerily robust in her role as the the ringmaster of all the cons and maintains a huge smile throughout the movie, but it’s really Rinko Kikuchi who owns this film. Her mute Bang Bang character is not only gorgeous, but she manages to convey more by not speaking than most actors can with a three-page monologue.

Rounding out the cast is Robbie Coltrane as a co-conspirator who joins their long con, although Johnson had originally wanted Ricky Jay for this role, and Bob Dylan as the narrator. When he couldn’t get Jay because of scheduling issues, he got him to narrate instead and decided that worked out well because he didn’t know how he could possibly direct Dylan. Dylan’s participation probably wouldn’t have really affected the film that much, but Ricky Jay is honestly a perfect choice in the role of The Curator. Not that Coltrane didn’t do a good job, but given Jay’s obsession and earnest love for confidence games, it would have been great to see what he could have done with the part.

While Bloom doesn’t carve new cinematic ground, it does create a new fantasy world for the art of the con game, and it remains buoyed by earnest performances throughout. While some reviewers have complained that it feels a bit too long in the middle, I could have easily watched another half hour, because I wanted to remain in that world just a bit longer. Bloom opens in limited release on December 19th and then opens wide on January 16th. Hopefully it won’t get lost in the post-Christmas/pre-Sundance dead zone for movies.