In Bruges
| Directed by: | Martin McDonagh |
|---|---|
| Written by: | Martin McDonagh |
| Cast: | Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy |
| Studio: | Focus Features |
| Genre: | Action Comedy |
| Official Site: | www.filminfocus.com/inbruges |
A movie I had heard almost nothing but good things about but had never got around to seeing it as I knew it couldn't be *that* good. On top of that everyone said the marketing was crap, and the actual movie was much different than what it was portrayed as. Well to calm all the conflicting, confusing and intriguing voices such as those, I pressed play.
Fortunately those people are right, and I'm not one of them. In Bruges was a fantastically fun film. It's premise is simple but the script stumbles around (though oddly somewhat gracefully) like a drunk person from interesting seed to interesting seed, with those seeds growing and eventually connecting to the main plot at some point in the movie, which was a real treat actually. Each of these moments are sure to put a smirk on your face.
The comedy in this movie is fantastic. It's quite rude so it may alienate some, but I found it hilarious. Farrell is great in his role and he deserves the recognition he got for it, and then some. Ralph Fiennes who enters the movie about 2/3rds of the way through is also entertaining as hell, though he's the villain. What probably goes unnoticed in most reviews of the movie is the great work by Brendan Gleeson as Ken. Great work as a conscious but brutal hitman, probably the deepest character in the movie, even though he's in a supporting role.
A special mention has to be made in this one for the action scenes. While they are few and far between, when they come they are big, real and crazy. A certain falling scene later in the movie is fantastically brutal and totally memorable.
Perhaps one of my few problems with In Bruges would be the voices. I'm not saying they should've all cut their accents down, no not in anyway. In fact the accents actually make most of it funnier, in a good way. However there were a few times where I just couldn't understand what they said, however not a huge issue. Another problem I had was the ending, which threw in a totally unnecessary 'is he dead or isn't he' question at the audience. This isn't that kind of movie, we don't need something like that at the end to make us think about the 'what if', this is the kind of movie where you go 'wow, that was fun!' at the end. Unfortunately we don't get that and instead get an unsatisfying ambulance ending with a great climax before it.
