Firstly, I would like to apologise for the long gap in between this review and the last, the reason for this being that I have recently learned that moving house can be quite time consuming.
This review is of Martin McDonagh’s tourist/professional killer film In Bruges, that recently received both a BAFTA and Oscar nomination for Best Original Screenplay for this in 2009, and won the BAFTA award. A relative sleeper hit film that slowly built up momentum from appearing at the Sundance Film Festival in 2008 and the Dublin Film Festival.
The plot for In Bruges follows two Irish hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) who are sent to the titular Bruge, after Ray botches a job in London at the start of the film, by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes). Once they arrive in Bruges, Ray and Ken try to entertain themselves in the city which Ray has a very negative view of, despite Ken’s fascination with the architecture. But is when Ray finally gets Ken to go to the pub, that they start to get into a series of insane moments, involving prostitutes and a racist midget.
Structurally In Bruges plays out for the most part perfectly in the 3 act structure, albeit being broken up by a series of flashbacks to the botched job in London, which gives you the reason for Ken and Ray being sent to Burges, and what gives the film it’s main plot and character twist.
The stand out character of In Bruges is arguably Farrell’s Ray, narrowly beating out Gleeson’s veteran Ken. Throughout the film Farrell gets the characters complexity perfect, getting both the hidden shame and the fun and charming side of him right at each specific moment, which adds great depth to the character so that you end up truly caring about him, and almost willing to forgive him.
If you were to look for weaknesses in In Bruges, then you could that some of the humour is very particular, and you will either love the humour and the film entirely, or you won’t, and a large part of this films charm and appeal will escape you. So quite simply, you have to be willing to give the brilliant and sometimes bizarre humour a chance, because you will be rewarded.
Score: ****(4/5)
