Movie Review: In Bruges (2008)

Having seen Martin McDonagh’s second feature film, Seven Psychopaths (which I reviewed here) first, In Bruges was a must-see. I’m going to note that I’ve kept this review spoiler free. Though the movie has been out for five years, it’s good enough to warrant if you’ve not seen it.

In Bruges is an original tale of a dark, comedic love story in three acts. The love story is delightfully not an expected one. However, there’s a divide that’s hard to ignore: does knowing the punch line before the end enhance a bleak comedy, or not? It’s a tough call.

Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson).

Ken (Brendan Gleeson) is a seasoned assassin who works a hit with Ray (Colin Farrell), a younger man who’s new to the field. Ray has committed a terrible act, albeit accidentally, and it weighs on him. The way it affects Ray, not to mention the event itself, weighs on Ken too, though in a vastly different manner. Their boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), has them holing up in Bruges, Belgium after a botched job. They’re to stay there and lay low until they receive further instructions.

There’s a reason Colin Farrell won an award for this role.

During their time in Bruges, the two men reveal what’s happened. Ray, pinched by the close confines, gets into a whole mess of things when he’s allowed out on the town by himself. The performances turned in by Gleeson and Farrell are poignant and ingenious. When Fiennes appears in the third act, the entire tone of the film changes, and the funny, hopeful despondency the film has been carrying has these new spikes of rage and terror that, despite Ray’s screw up, has you rooting for him if you weren’t already. For Ray is not just new to the killing profession, he’s also young. As if his mind had stopped progressing fully with his body. There’s a childlike innocence to him that is endearing, still smart and wild, but so alone. He loves and feels with his entire heart, though he tries to keep it carefully hidden.

I’d trust Ken, hitman that he is, with my life.

Ken, by comparison, exudes a quiet strength, wisdom and acceptance of just about everything around him. He is instantly trustworthy and we come to expect nothing less than what he gives of himself. Which, ultimately, is everything. Ken’s character has already lost that which mattered most to him once, he’s simply unwilling to let it happen again. Throughout the film, it’s Ken who chooses – not has to, but chooses – to clean up Ray’s mess. The film questions what makes us good and what the cost of forgiveness actually is. Where Farrell’s acting is exceedingly good, it’s Gleeson’s that is spectacular, especially at the climax. It was, without reservation, horrifically beautiful.

The brilliant playground scene.

At the movie’s end, there is an intersection of wonder, sadness, anger, and no small amount of insane hope. There is comedic satire littered throughout and it’s often subtle, found in the relationship of Ken and Ray, Ray trying to find love with the drug-dealing Chloe (Clemence Poesy), and Harry and Ken. However, McDonagh also likes to beat us over the heads with it. It’s that in-your-face aspect, while still cleverly done, and in character for Ray or Ken, that in critique, finds itself at odds with the darker aspects of the film.  Even so, the  disjointed humor is terrifically funny, if jarring at times.

True remorse.

Harry, when he emerges, is a dark engine of rigid, wrathful killing. Fiennes adds a cold fury that propels the story forward with vindictive directness. His moral compass points are so without deviation that his ultimate choice is part of the big gag and destructive conclusion. Ray, confronted with Harry’s rage, even as he and Harry duke it out, still tries to do the right thing. The pacing, music (the music alone is spectacular), and scenery add to these surreal moral choices at nearly every turn. It’s bizarrely delightful, even while heartbreaking.

Ralph Fiennes as Harry is equal parts Voldemort and Godfather.

Much like his second film, McDonagh uses the setting to play its own part as another cast member.  Bruges is an old city, built on a strong foundation of history, religious persecution, and now commercial tourism. There’s a sort of ethereal quality to Bruges that parallels the harsh reality of what Ken and Ray do for a living and what the cost of screwing up as assassins is. McDonagh wisely chose a location that not only provided amazing cinematography, but also acted as a near perfect mirror for Ray’s mental innocence, Ken’s aged zen nature, and the animosity of history in Harry. Part of the hilarity stems from Ray’s utter hatred of Bruges. The confines of the hotel eat at him. Ironically, it’s at their jail-like Bed & Breakfast that there’s another minor, unyielding component: the co-owner of the B&B.

History is beautiful and distasteful.

Normally, such a minor character wouldn’t bear notice in a review about a movie about men that’s about redemption. However, the co-owner of the B&B, Marie (Thekla Reuten) provides this wonderfully solid reality base, who puts herself in the line of comedic – and lethal – fire. She, pregnant with her first child, becomes an immovable mountain when it’s Ray’s safety at stake. Her motherly self takes over to protect. I would like to call shenanigans on stereotypical roles being engendered here, but it  works so damn well.

Wave a gun in my face, will you?

And that’s the wonderful strangeness of McDonagh. His movies can be assessed and ripped apart, but he’s telling a story that’s all his own and he’s shaking his finger at it, telling us, “Watch! Did you see that? It’s all a big joke and it’s all horrible and it’s all wonderful. And we go on. Or do we?”

The score:
5 Bags of Eaten Popcorn
2 Action Fists
4 Heartbreaks

In Bruges is a great film that can be difficult to watch. Which I did. Twice in a row. That being said, it’s one I now highly recommend.