It is hard to believe that a tale of professional murderers trapped in the fairytale city of Bruges could be a true morality tale, never mind a darkly hilarious one; but In Bruges (written and directed by Martin McDonagh) manages to straddle the lines between comedy, thriller, and drama with an aplomb that has seen the film deservedly earn almost universal praise from critics and the movie-going public alike.
Bruges is a fairytale city in the true Brothers Grimm sense of the word; a dark, brooding, medieval city in Belgium whose grim cobblestoned streets, imposing turreted houses, and fittingly depressing weather (admittedly this equally applies to the other, non-medieval parts of Belgium as well) doesn’t seem to deter the tourists from flocking in from around the world to see this living relic of the past.
Into this eerily beautiful location enter two professional assassins: new kid Ray (Colin Farrell, in perhaps the role of his career), an Irishman with an affable and charming personality that fails to hide a very short fuse; and Ken (played ably by Brendan Gleeson), a middle-aged Englishman who has taken Ray under his wing. The two men have been sent to Bruges by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to lay low after a botched job in London; to reveal more of the plot would spoil things, but suffice to say that it is very well thought out and paced beautifully, and will have you wrapped up in it until the end.
The dialogue is riotously entertaining, with the interchanges between Ray and Ken, Ray and Harry, and basically Ray and everyone else usually being very funny, if not outright hilarious. Farrell manages the exact right combination between being a smartarse and sounding absolutely sincere in the outrageous things he says, and his charm manages to make his character far more sympathetic and likeable than a morally ambiguous hitman really should be. Gleeson, Fiennes, and indeed the entire supporting cast also play their roles very well, and Fiennes in particular is almost unrecognisable in his swear-a-minute turn as the boss.
The other aspects of this film are just as accomplished as the very witty dialogue. As mentioned previously, Bruges is so amazing that it is almost a character in its own right, and the dark and shadowy town really fits the equally dark and shadowy subject matter. The musical score also matches the mood and setting very well, consisting as it does entirely of sparse piano that helps lend a sombre air to the film in between all the hilarious dialogue and strange situations.
The only remote criticism that can be aimed at the film – and this is reaching – is that some parts of the film could perhaps flow a little quicker than they do; but this ‘downtime’ (as it were) helps to reinforce the fact that, even with the quirky and dark humour, In Bruges is by no means a real comedy. When all the layers of fun and weirdness are stripped away, the story told by this film is actually quite tragic, and it is to the credit of McDonagh and his cast that they can entertain the viewer and make them laugh uproariously even while telling a very human story about very human failings and a search for redemption (or just an end to the pain) against a backdrop that is visually and morally about as grey as you can get.
I rate In Bruges: 9/10 (Equal parts wit, humour, darkness, and moral ambiguity, In Bruges is the sort of film that comes along rarely, and it is rarer still for it to be as well-made and enjoyable as this. Perhaps it will not be to everybody’s taste, but anybody that enjoys good cinema owes it to themselves to give it a try.)
- Tim Sweeney
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