In Bruges - Dark Publications

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Product Description
Studio: Uni Dist Corp. (mca) Release Date: 06/24/2008 Run time: 107 minutes Rating: R

Amazon.com
The considerable pleasures of In Bruges begin with its title, which suggests a glumly self-important art film but actually fits a rattling-good tale of two Irish gangsters "keepin' a low profile" after a murder gone messily wrong. Bruges, the best-preserved medieval town in Belgium, is where the bearlike veteran Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and newbie triggerman Ray (Colin Farrell) have been ordered by their London boss to hole up for two weeks. As the sly narrative unfolds like a paper flower in water, "in Bruges" also becomes a state of mind, a suspended moment amid centuries-old towers and bridges and canals when even thuggish lives might experience a change in direction. And throughout, the viewer has ample opportunity to consider whose pronunciation of "Bruges" is more endearing, Gleeson's or Farrell's. The movie marks the feature writing-directing debut of playwright Martin McDonagh, whose droll meditation on sudden mortality, Six Shooter, copped the 2005 Oscar for best live-action short. Although McDonagh clearly relishes the musicality of his boyos' brogue and has written them plenty of entertaining dialogue, In Bruges is no stageplay disguised as a film. The script is deceptively casual, allowing for digressions on the newly united and briskly thriving Europe, and annexing passers-by as characters who have a way of circling back into the story with unanticipatable consequences. That includes a film crew--shooting a movie featuring, to Ray's fascination, "a midget" (Jordan Prentice)--and a fetching blond production assistant (Clemence Poesy) whose job description keeps evolving. There's one other key figure: Harry, the Cockney gang boss whose omnipotence remains unquestioned as long as he remains offscreen, back in England, as if floating in an early Harold Pinter play. Harry has reasons inextricably tender and perverse for selecting Bruges as his hirelings' destination, and eventually he emerges from the aether to express them--first as a garrulous telephone voice and then in the volatile form of Ralph Fiennes. By that point the charmed moment of suspension, already shaken by several irruptions of violence, is pretty well doomed. But In Bruges continues to surprise and satisfy right up to the end. --Richard T. Jameson

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4 out of 5 stars

The Odd Couple February 16, 2008
40 out of 45 found this review helpful

Martin Mc Donagh's "In Bruges" proves at least one thing once and for all: Colin Farrell is a thoughtful, emotionally open, soon to do very great things on the screen, actor...something that anyone who has seen "Tigerland" and "Home at the End of the World" already knows despite evidence to the contrary: "S.W.A.T," "Alexander," "Miami Vice," etc. etc.
'If I'd grown up on a farm, and was retarded, Bruges might impress me. But I didn't, so it doesn't" says Ray (Farrell) to his fellow hit man, Ken (burly Brendan Gleeson): both sent to Bruges, Belgium to cool off after a bloody hit that unfortunately went woefully wrong.
This is McDonagh's first film as Director/Writer and it is evident that he has a great eye for detail both in the sparkling, smart-*ss dialogue as well as with the stunning visual vocabulary of movies. Bruges is a beautiful city: ancient, redolent of the many lives lived there with its cobblestone streets, masonry buildings and outdoor plazas. As such, staid, old lady of Belgium Bruges stands in vivid contrast to the Irish duo of middle-aged, seen-it-all, supposedly Gay, interested in the sights and history of the city Ken and the emotionally over-wrought, painfully sensitive Ray: nervous, anxious, wanting to party, sporadically breaking out in sobs...literally an open emotional wound desperate for succor, blatantly remorseful, seeking redemption in all the wrong places.
"In Bruges" roils over with goofy, silly dialogue (mostly spoken by Farrell who proves very adept at delivering it in droll, wry, ironic style) and profanity, violent bursts of gunfire, and jokes at the expense of dwarfs and Americans. Screenwriter McDonagh steers his odd couple Irishmen through a series of strange/odd situations in which questions of honor, friendship and mortality are mulled. The older Gleeson also proves to be the grounded one: good at what he does (that is kill people) and able, by his very presence to calm Ray down.
Ralph Fiennes is also on hand here and plays Ray and Ken's boss, a mean-spirited bloke who talks in Michael Caine-Cockney cadences and arrives in Bruges to make sure that a hit, assigned to Ken is carried out without fail.
"In Bruges" shares many of the surface traits of such films as Tarantino's "Pulp Fiction" but, though great as "Pulp Fiction" is, it doesn't have the heart and soul of Mc Donagh's "In Bruges": a film that satisfies the thriller/action genes of us all but also digs very deep below and reveals the true natures of its very conflicted, ultimately very human characters.

5 out of 5 stars

Hell must be spending the rest of eternity in Bruges (ok, and yes, purgatory must be Tottenham) July 20, 2008
26 out of 29 found this review helpful

Another delightful little British black gangster comedy. Think of: Sexy Biest (w Ben KIngsley). Snatch (w Brad Pitt, Benicio dT ...). Layer Cake (w David Craig). These guys have figured it out. Usually high class actors (here R.Fiennes, who is much more convincing as a bad guy than otherwise, and the quite capable Colin F., who had been a bit overrated for a while, but he really is quite talented).
A basically simple plot (a hit man has screwed up, causing collateral damage; the boss needs to remove him, orders the partner to get it done, which turns out a problem...) runs into obstacles because the protagonists develop unexpected attitudes. Slapstick with guns.
(Disclaimer: let me add that the headline is not my opinion, but a quote from Colin Farrell's character Ray, who thinks that Bruges is a s-hole; I fully disagree with that crass opinion, Bruges is as nice a place as you are likely to find in the whole of Belgium. On Tottenham I am not an expert.)

4 out of 5 stars

Bullets Over Belgium February 9, 2008
18 out of 20 found this review helpful

Much like a comedian, "In Bruges" is a film that uses humor to mask pain. It tells jokes and we laugh at them, but it's by no means a comedy; the story is deadly serious and at times downright shocking, and we're ultimately left in limbo about what we should and shouldn't find funny. This is actually one of the film's greatest strengths, simply because life itself is often hilarious in the face of tragedy. Writer and director Martin McDonagh seemed to know that all too well, which is good because it made for a unique and surprisingly engaging film. But be aware that not everyone will be this receptive: the subject matter is anything but light; most of the characters inhabit that massive gray area between decency and amorality; the ending is appropriate but definitely unconventional, leaving us unsure as to whether or not everyone got what they deserved.

The film opens with two Irish hitmen--Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson)--arriving in Bruges, a Belgian city that's known for being the most preserved medieval village in all of Europe. They were sent there after a job in England went horribly wrong. I won't say what happened, but I will say that Ray is now an emotional wreck, unable to forgive himself for what he has done. Anyway, both men are told to wait in Bruges until further notice. In the meantime, they might as well enjoy a little sightseeing, and indeed, Bruges is a beautiful, picturesque place. While Ken is more than willing to take everything in, Ray behaves like an immature teenager, shooting his mouth off about how awful Bruges is. He even gets into hot water with tourists, especially the American ones--it seems he's still bitter over the Vietnam War and the murder of John Lennon.

But it's much more likely that the past few days have taken their toll on him, with the incident in England weighing heavily on him. His only outlet is beer, cocaine, and Chloe (Clemence Poesy), a young woman working with a film crew. They share a fascinating if odd relationship, him being a hitman on the brink of suicide, her being a drug dealer and occasional robber. It's through her that Ray meets Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), a dwarf acting in the film being shot in Bruges. They, too, share an interesting relationship, not only because both are pent up fountains of anger, but also because of how they express that anger. Here's an example for Jimmy: there's a scene in which he's high on cocaine, ranting about how there will eventually be a race war between the blacks and the whites, and he feels that every ethnicity from the Vietnamese to the Pakistanis will side with the blacks. "What about black midgets and white midgets?" Ray asks. "Yes!" Jimmy emphatically responds. "Now there's a movie!" chuckles Ray, who quickly notices how offensive Ken is finding this conversation.

After a few days, Ken in finally contacted by Harry (Ralph Fiennes), who gives specific instructions that I won't reveal. I will say Harry is probably the film's only evil character, despite the fact that he has strict principles about who and who not to kill. He apparently first saw Bruges when he was only seven years old, and he loved it so much that he wanted both Ken and Ray to experience it. Bruges is like a city in a fairy tale, Harry says, and woe to those who don't feel the same way--one gets the sense that, in his eyes, disliking Bruges is akin to disliking the air we breathe. As irrational as this line of thinking is, Ken goes along with everything Harry says and always obeys. But then the next hit is ordered, and at that point, Ken reconsiders the life he leads and why he leads it. This, in turn, forces Harry to come back to Bruges.

All this paves the way for the final sequences, which are cleverly written to say the least. They serve as brutal counterparts to many earlier scenes, many of which have Ray and Ken discussing the existence of heaven, hell, and purgatory. They also wonder what it means to be a truly good person; Ken feels that he's generally a nice guy, yet he's well aware that he has killed people. He also asserts that, with one exception, his victims were all bad people who deserved to be killed. This begs the question: Where is the line drawn, since justified murder is still murder? Ken and Ray grapple with this, knowing perfectly well that their feelings could mean the difference between life and death.

There's a scene that sees both men in the Basilica of the Holy Blood, which displays a fragment of cloth said to have been soaked with the blood of Jesus Christ. Ken wants to see this cloth while Ray is desperate to leave, and that's an interesting duality since both men are sinners and unsure about what the hereafter has in store for them. Ray believes that hell is an eternity in Bruges, which is the only reason why he doesn't want to die there. Ken eventually believes that his purpose is to send Ray off to find his own purpose. Both have a lot to pay for. Whether or not they actually do pay, I'm not sure; much like the film's overall sense of humor, the ending of "In Bruges" is ambivalent, leaving us in a thick fog. But at the very least, it's a lovely, almost magical fog, much like the one shrouding Bruges every evening.

5 out of 5 stars

Purgatory? It's "Like Tottenham" July 3, 2008
14 out of 19 found this review helpful

In Bruges is a delightful little film from the UK featuring Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson (you may recall him as Mad-Eye Moody from Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (Widescreen Edition)).

By turns laugh out loud funny, poignant, and violent, 'In Bruges' has Farrell (Ray) and Gleeson (Ken) as two hit men sent to Bruges from England after Farrell botches a hit job. Ralph Fiennes (The Constant Gardener (Widescreen Edition)) makes a stellar late appearance as Harry, the boss who comes over from London to straighten the pair of them out. Nearly every character in the film, however brief their role, is either interesting to look at or listen to or think about or all three.

Ray and Ken are an ill-matched pair - Ken decides to play the tourist and soaks up the canals, art and cathedral. Ray, on the other hand, never refers to Bruges without the adjective 'firking' in front of it (or something like that). Much of the film's humor comes from little bits of conversation and the contrast between the natures of the two killers. Ken takes Ray to the Basilica of the Holy Blood, but Ray cannot be bothered with kissing the vial. They see a triptych that includes purgatory, which Ray succinctly describes 'It's when you're not really [bad] and not really good - like Tottenham.'(This is a reference not to Tottenham the city, but rather to Tottenham the football team. Also, I think the triptych is Bosch's The Last Judgment').

Turns out though that Ray and Ken quite like each other - it's not going too far to say they are even devoted friends. Out of this devotion comes the film's poignancy.

The film has a fair amount of violence, mostly brief, but somewhat graphic and a surfeit of f-bombs and some c-bombs as well. The use of profane language as humor is harder to pull off now that profanity is so ordinary, but they manage it, sometimes by mixing it with proper and even delicate use of English, such as when Ken includes a reference to Harry's children in a profanity-laced riff, Harry demands that he retract the reference to his children and Ken quickly, almost shamefacedly agrees to the retraction, before resuming his choice references to parts of Harry's private anatomy.

Mostly, 'In Bruges' is just very funny while being a little odd and a little touching. Highly recommended.

2 out of 5 stars

drama does not equal comedy June 22, 2008
8 out of 19 found this review helpful

This movie is advertised on the box as being a comedy. It is not a bit funny at all. The premise of gangsters shooting it out in the beautiful city of Bruges is what is supposed to be the comedic element I suppose. This may not be the fault of the people who made this movie however. It is clearly a dark drama that they tried to inject a little humor into but it's not a dark comedy at all. I guess a small boy getting his head blown off in a church is funny to a drug addict mentality; but for most of the people on this planet , this is not humorous. And even worse than this is that you have to sit through a 15 minute scene in the middle of the movie in which people do alot of drugs and say stupid rascist comments , and scenes in which people think about things on drugs which distort all reality anyways are always the ultimate bore. The acting however is first class in this movie and the characters are well developed. The box warns that this movie isn't P.C. and that's fine but if they had said this is a dark drama with a few comedic elements they would have been saying the truth. Still colin ferrel and the rest of the cast do make the characters engaging enough to forgive the weaker elements of the movie. I don't think this was sold to the theaters as a dark comedy so I can at least cut the filmaker some slack on that issue.
He clearly has talent and he may have been trying to be hip by adding the endless boring drug taking and talking scene; but a good editor would have shortened that scene and focused more on the solid acting of gleeson and ferril as these two men bond together. And the best friends you have are not party friends, but are those who are bonded to you by your real experiences in life. Ironically the character that Brandon Gleeson plays understands this and this means the filmaker did too, he just got sidetracked by the now outdated idea that showing alot of drug usage makes a movie cool.

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