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In Bruges (2008)
Director: Martin McDonagh
Movie review
From Time Out New York
The world wasn’t exactly clamoring for another movie about sensitive hit men—not least one directed by a first-time feature filmmaker with a playwright’s tendency to favor words over action. As in his stage smash The Pillowman, McDonagh (who won a short-film Oscar for his “Six Shooter”) writes his scenario in every direction at once: Sequences are overexplained; characters are belatedly introduced; a lone flashback feels shoehorned in.
But In Bruges achieves a kind of zany momentum all the same, as any movie featuring a drugged-out dwarf, a cycloptic thief and an irritable Canadian sightseer as running characters might be prone to do. All parties are united in Bruges, the medieval Belgian city-cum-tourist-spot where the assassins (nervous rookie Farrell and genial old-timer Gleeson) have been instructed to hide out. Whether they’re in “fucking Bruges”—as Farrell, atypically solid, calls it—on a hit or a paid vacation is an open question. As these accidental tourists navigate a landscape of cathedrals and gastropubs, McDonagh immerses them in an interplay that’s half Beckett, half Mikey and Nicky. The two men contemplate the morals of their profession, with Farrell grasping for redemption through a tentative romance with a local (Poésy).
Rich with a Mamet-like tendency toward tautology (“History—it’s all a bunch of stuff that’s already happened”), McDonagh’s dialogue is often bruisingly funny, particularly once hambone Ralph Fiennes makes his belated entrance. If he hasn’t yet learned to trust the camera—Don’t Look Now is explicitly mentioned, as though the combination of canals and a dwarf weren’t enough—McDonagh’s sense of the absurd never falters.
Author: Ben Kenigsberg
Time Out New York Issue 645: February 7-13,2008
User reviews of this film
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- Florence said...
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Posted on May 19 2009 22:04
Liked the setting but at times it was very grey as winter was the background. Farrell was passable all for his face exercises.
Some of the characters such as the land lady,and the girlfriend could have been enlarged.
Question unanswered...why did Colin kill the priest? That would have been a very good beginning.
Why was McDonagh needing special redemption? Just for all the people he killed for Fiennes?
Should have been explained earlier on.
Did anyone think that Colin was Fienneslong lost son?
That could have been an angle. Too many loose ends not explained...just three horrible deaths.
I would rate this film with 3 stars out of five. - Report as inappropriate
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- borrisbatanov said...
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Posted on Jun 26 2008 22:20
“In Bruges” is somewhat difficult to pin down, in that it consists of multiple ill-fitting contradictory parts that never quite add up to a whole, despite a desperate and unlikely final act. It attempts, fundamentally, to be a moral tale, the story of the redemption of two hit men and their boss. While it ostensibly tries to demonstrate that violence begets violence, it shamelessly exploits violence. While pretending to be hard-edged, it resorts to maudlin tricks. It is literary and artistic, dialogue and screen wittily peppered with leitmotivs, and often pretty as a postcard, while looking for the seamy side, the underbelly. Even the acting is uneven, with Colin Farrell stupidly rolling his eyes and making faces, trying his best to play a simpleton, a “boy,” while Mark Donovan, as his partner, provides a restrained journeyman-like performance.
The very idea of Bruges is a stretch, supposed to be the medieval setting for this morality play, replete with heavy religious symbolism, plenty of churches and religious paintings, including Bosch’s demented vision of purgatory. There’s even a movie-within-a-movie, with actors in costumes reiterative of the figures in Bosch’s painting. "Touch of Evil" briefly plays on a TV in the background. It’s all too manipulated, too designing, careful in its parsing of information.
Having said all that, I still enjoyed it. Like a magic trick, it keeps you guessing, entertains your eye and ear, and teases and surprises you. Like a cheap trick, it’s only afterwards that you know you’ve been conned. - Report as inappropriate
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- mad boy said...
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Posted on Apr 29 2008 12:28
CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC
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AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA
PPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! - Report as inappropriate
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- Dan said...
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Posted on Apr 25 2008 20:52
It's like Quentin Tarantino got together with Ricky Gervais, to write about two Irish hit-men.
...very good film, if you like either, or both of the above.
Check it out. I loved it. - Report as inappropriate
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- Tony Brignull said...
- Posted on Apr 25 2008 06:04 This is a grown-up film which asks an adult question: is redemption possible when the sin is as ghastly as they come. And can art, architecture and the love of women help? Despite the bloody ending the film suggests that if these characters are savable (and they all end better than they began) so is mankind. Truly moving.
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- Gin said...
- Posted on Apr 23 2008 08:47 Was not bothered about seeing this but went along and LOVED it. Fantastic acting, scripts to rival Taranteeno and a lovely touch of hunour in a balck sense - makes you laugh. Theonly film I've seen this year to rival it is No Counrty for Old Men. Go see it.
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- libby said...
- Posted on Apr 11 2008 04:24 Very British, very politically incorrect and very funny
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- C. del Balso said...
- Posted on Mar 16 2008 15:45 This really was one of the dumbest movies I've seen this year. Some--very few funny bits--and the dialog was sometimes painful. We should have gone to see The Bank Job!
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- Elizabeth said...
- Posted on Feb 07 2008 15:21 Previewed the movie in advance, didn't expect to like it. Loved this movie, funny in a dark way. See it.
- Report as inappropriate
Cast & crew
Director: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Jordan Prentice, Zeljko Ivanek, Jérémie Rénier full cast
Genre(s): Comedy
Rated: R
Duration: 107 mins
US Release: Feb 8 2008
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