In Bruges is a riveting, fascinating crime thriller that begins as a buddy/travel comedy and builds to a theological guilt drama. These elements would hardly seem like a fit in tone and style in most American movies but the Brits and the Irish have a way of placing their brand of crime thrillers like Sexy Beast or Intermission right in that sweet spot where one does not know whether to laugh, recoil in shock, or maybe even cry.
This time, it is Irish playwright Martin McDonagh who effortlessly meshes sardonic wit and shocking, tragic violence in this story of two hitmen who are at odds on how to perform their latest job and do some sightseeing in this small town in Belgium called Bruges.
The two hitmen are sent there for two weeks to lay low for a while after the last hit went horribly wrong. The younger one is Ray (Colin Farrell), who is a bit of a hothead and cannot get back to his hometown, Dublin. This at times exasperates the older, gentler one, Ken (Brendan Gleeson) who is more into seeing the artistry and architecture of this town he reads in his travel guide to be the “best-preserved medieval city in Belgium.” We have seen this kind of pairing before, of course, but the elastic chemistry between Farrell and Gleeson make the film so fresh and so witty with the kind of humor that is based on a clash of character quirks and intent observation of human traits.
This much you can gather if you have seen the hipster trailer that fortunately does not give away the film’s deeper core and this is a movie that is best enjoyed watching it cold and letting the story unfold rather than trying to outguess it. No doubt there will be some who may not be as pleased at the darker turns the film ultimately takes but it is one of the story’s pleasures that the twists and the inventive albeit morbid humor base themselves more on character than on plot. So, though I will tiptoe around the crucial developments, stop reading here if you wish to walk into this movie without knowing any more about it.
Article comments