In Bruges (***½)

Directed By: Martin McDonagh
Starring: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes
Seen: September 24th 2008

***½ Out of ****

After a botched (to a degree) assassination attempt, assassin Ray (Farrell) is sent to Bruges with Ken (Gleeson) by their very controlling and obsessive boss, Harry (Fiennes). They are to wait out the repercussions of the last job before considering doing anything else. One problem is that they’re expected to be waiting in their hotel room for the call, but are almost never there, since Ray’s youngster attitude can’t bring himself to wait in a boring hotel room. He’d rather go and explore a boring town. Another problem is that Harry tends to call them when they’re not in…

That is the backbone of this story, and much more would be a spoiler. Farrell and Gleeson give spectacular performances, as is evidenced by their Golden Globe nominations, both in the category Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy. And what a comedy this is, vey black and very funny and very entertaining indeed.

Bruges as a town is ripped apart (not physically), particularly by Ray, who at one stage says he might have enjoyed it if he was retarded and had grown up on a farm, which gives an idea of the type of humour in the film. The whole film is oddly endearing, especially the character Ray, who is dealing with being an assassin. Farrell portrays all these conflicting and strange emotions in such a way that you find yourself rooting for him regardless of what he has done to botch the assassination attempt that got him holed up in Bruges in the first place. Gleeson as Ken brilliantly supports Farrell, standing in as a father figure, if an assassin can ever have one.

From fat tourists to a “pimp” dwarf to loyalty between friends to a sweet little romance to excellent humour to good suspense, there is not a moment in In Bruges that disappoints as all the actors carry us along on a forceful and delightful and unexpected trip to a very good conclusion. Even the high volume of swearing in the film is made fun of, by none other than Farrell himself, who himself doesn’t rather use the word damn while shooting blanks (see the film). I’m definitely buying the DVD.