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| Monday, February 18, 2008 04:04 PM |
| On the Viewer: In Bruges |
 by Fëanor |
Poppy and I saw In Bruges, the first feature-length film by writer/director Martin McDonagh, this past weekend, which was the opening weekend for the film. The commercials for the movie are making it out to be a wacky comedy with guns - your average post-Pulp Fiction action flick. But it's not really like that at all. It certainly has plenty of very funny and clever dark humor, but it also has a lot of serious drama, and ultimately reveals itself to be a deep and moving examination of the human condition.
Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play Ray and Ken, a pair of hitmen who screw up a job and are ordered by their boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), to report to the Belgian town of Bruges and wait there for further instructions. Bruges is an extremely well-preserved Medieval city with a series of canals and many beautiful old buildings. Ken loves it thoroughly and immediately, and Ray hates it just as thoroughly and just as immediately. As Ken takes in the sights and tries to calm Ray down, Ray looks for his kind of excitement and finds it in the form of a beautiful young woman working on the set of a movie being filmed in town. The film is a kind of homage to Don't Look Now and features a dwarf American actor (the sight of whom is what attracts Ray in the first place - he's kind of vaguely obsessed with midgets for some reason). The woman gives Ray his number and he gets a date with her.
But even as all this is going on, we're also learning more about the sort of father/son relationship that exists between Ken and Ray; just why Ken is so loyal to Harry; just what went wrong on Ray's first job; how it's leading both Ken and Ray to do some serious soul-searching and self-examination; and what Harry really wants them to do in Bruges. It all leads to guns, drugs, suicide, murder, a fascinating and clever post-modern reference/homage to Don't Look Now, and a perfect, open-ended conclusion that left me entirely satisfied.
All the acting in the movie is excellent, but Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson are particularly good in the two central parts. The script is really carefully balanced, managing to be totally silly, deeply insightful, and solemnly moving all at the same time in almost every scene. Visually the movie is truly beautiful, with expert set design, costuming, shooting, and editing. Certain sequences are rather surreal, but in general it's a very realistic film with some deep things to say about humanity, life and death, honor and principles, sins and forgiveness. I can't recommend it highly enough. Just be prepared for some disturbing situations and some blood and gore. |
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