In Bruges

Starring: Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleseon Directed by: Martin McDonagh Runtime: 107 min. Rated: R Release date: February 8, 2008 - More Info
READER RATINGS:
6.8 OVERALL	Smart . . . . . . . . 7.4 Sexy . . . . . . . . . 5.5 Funny . . . . . . . . 7.2

The Nerve Review

Way more engaging than a bantering-hitman-with-a-heart picture released in 2008 has any right to be, Martin McDonagh's In Bruges might have made serious waves back in 1994. Today it feels like a mysterious creature from another age — devoid of grit or naturalism, and shot with a composed elegance largely missing from today's screens. In other words, it's a fairy tale with guns and exploding heads. That's its blessing and its curse.

The story begins with two British thugs — laid-back veteran Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and impatient whippersnapper Ray (Colin Farrell) — arriving in Bruges, a city in Belgium with authentic medieval towers, quaint cobblestone streets and almost no pulse. They've been sent here by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to cool off, ostensibly because Ray accidentally shot someone he wasn't supposed to back in England. World-weary Ken is happy to take in the sights and enjoy this magical place; frantic Ray is bored out of his mind, and misses pussy, drugs and excitement. Said excitement comes soon enough from an unexpected source: Harry calls Ken to tell him that his mission is to kill Ray, who has to pay for his crime back home. Can Ken do it? Away we go.

For most of its running time, In Bruges is very funny and expertly acted. (In particular, one senses Farrell is finally playing a character close to his real self — although, as someone who has admired him in Cassandra's Dream, The New World, and Miami Vice, I can't take too many potshots at his previous work.) But things get messy whenever McDonagh tries to reach for more. The ancient spires and tolling church bells give In Bruges the feel of a fable, and it's clear that the writer-director wants his film to be about more than chatty hitmen and state-of-the-art weaponry. Underneath his tough-guy exterior, Ray is haunted by his acts back home. But with a plot this manufactured, moral questioning feels out-of-place, as if Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner suddenly stopped to ponder the humanity of what they were doing. McDonagh has already done the hard work of getting us to like these characters — their existential crises yank us out of the film. Luckily, such pauses are few and far between. Mostly, In Bruges is a cartoon. And that's a good thing. — Bilge Ebiri

Other Reviews

The Village Voice
Ella Taylor
"The movie succumbs to a self-defeating tonal clash between McDonagh the playwright, tipsy on wordplay and deep themes of sin, loyalty, and redemption, and the hipster novice filmmaker anxious to corner a lucrative movie market."
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Variety
Robert Koehler
"Even in the early sections, where at least McDonagh can concentrate on his dialogue, there's a strong sense that the film isn't about much at all, and what's there could blow away in a light breeze. Gleeson and Farrell rise above these problems, though, with a warm ease and an enjoyably natural way of depicting guys who like pissing each other off."
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The New Yorker
Anthony Lane
"[I]t comes as no surprise that this film. . . should be menaced by its creator's gifts. If your verbal facility streams along like McDonagh's, it must be almost impossible to check the rush, and the result is a number of scenes that overspill their boundaries."
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The Hollywood Reporter
James Greenberg
"McDonagh is skilled at leavening the human cruelty with humor. . . Gleeson's girth and Farrell's hangdog sadness makes them feel like the mob version of Laurel and Hardy as they bicker and stew."
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Your Reviews

posted by ledunguyen on 4/4/2008 9:27:21 PM

I have to agree with MPROV. This movie gets a few more points because of its release date. There is really nothing worth seeing out there right now. It is obvious that this script was written by someone transitioning from theater to movies, and that seems to be at the heart of the complaints by the professional critics here. But I actually enjoyed it for that reason. Every single interaction with characters -- no matter how small or "large" -- services the story. (If you've seen the movie, you know why I used quotation marks.) Another slam on this movie was its violence -- but that was much more tame than I had been led to believe.