In Bruges: Movie Review by Nigel Beale.
Irony abounds in Director/Screenwriter Martin McDonagh’s debut film In Bruges.
It opens with two hired killers, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, holed up in a canalled fairyland with Gleeson happily at home in the history and culture, Farrell bored to tears by the dump. ‘Bloody Bruges’ serves as the sumptuous backdrop to this interesting if flawed Felliniesque thriller. The Bruges Tourism Board couldn’t have crafted a better advertisement for its gorgeous city. Richly painted, the film places violence and guilt in front of a refined, peaceful canvas.
Soft, hymn-like piano music, recalling the work of Arvo Part, accompanies our tour through town; while Gleeson admires the religious artifacts, Farrell wrestles with his conscience, having just accidentally killed a young boy during a successful assignment to murder a priest. No regrets about the latter it seems, great angst over the former.
McDonagh is an award winning playwright and it shows. A certain staged claustrophobia hangs over the film, which though not uncomfortable, is evident, and somewhat distracting. The film also wavers indecisively between comedy and tragedy, unsure as to which road to travel. This tends to sabotage the strengths it exhibits in both, each nullifying the other. All or nothing, on either side, would, I think, have improved things.
Honour, friendship and loyalty are all explored in the film. Uber thug Ralph Fiennes eventually orders Gleeson to kill Farrell. When he fails, Ralph steams over from England with carnage on the cortex. Although he plays the scum with skill, it’s almost too much. Fiennes’s phone smashing scene in response to Gleeson’s disobedience is over-done, a sudden tirade that isn’t justified by the events: an effect without enough cause. Sure he’s a volatile character, but more context would have provided more power. Believability suffers. Fiennes just seems laughable. A caricature.
As the film progresses, and Farrell gets into various trysts and tussles his acting improves, or at least his persona starts to better suit his character. No longer the ill cast baffoon, he ’s now the lonely little boy aptly alive in a grown up mercenary killer’s body.
The film contains many interesting contradictions and twists. Criminals in churches, ugly violence in a beautiful, progressively surrealistic locale, slapstick tragedy, a killer whose life is spared because he is suicidal. The movie serves an artsy platter that leaves a strange frantic aftertaste. David Lynch goes to Belgium. It’s an engaging study of the motives which drive the criminal mind, and a commentary on what constitutes right and wrong. It also contains the gorgeous Thekla Reuten. Reminded me a bit of Don’t Look Now, an odd 1973 thriller starring Donald Sutherland set in Venice.
In Bruges is worth seeing: Thought provoking and aesthetically pleasing it easily beats your standard Hollywood crime thriller fare. Though with the talent at hand, it could have been much better.
July 5th, 2008 at 8:24 PM
"In Bruges is worth seeing: Thought provoking and aesthetically pleasing it easily beats your standard Hollywood crime thriller fare. Though with the talent at hand, it could have been much better." Nigel,I absolutely agree with your first point. My wife and I walked out thinking how much more satisfying the experience had been than the usual run of Hollywood films. The atmosphere was a revelation (never having been to Bruges).I’m not sure, however, how much better it could have been; that’s always such a debatable point. It had to end somehow—such is the nature of drama. And genre, which of course it is. Best,Jim H.
July 14th, 2008 at 3:25 PM
[...] Beale presents In Bruges: Movie Review by Nigel Beale. posted at NIGEL BEALE NOTA BENE BOOKS I’ve never seen this one, but it has to be good, [...]
August 9th, 2008 at 11:40 AM
The film also wavers indecisively between comedy and
tragedy, unsure as to which road to travel. This tends to sabotage the
strengths it exhibits in both, each nullifying the other. All or
nothing, on either side, would, I think, have improved things.I actually enjoyed its refusal to play in a neat little corner. I thought the tricky business of shifting tones was handled quite nicely. All or nothing would have reduced it to just another genre flick.