By Linda Winsh-Bolard
Two Irish hitmen find themselves in Bruges after a hit gone wrong. They work for a London mafia boss, Harry, who sent them to Bruges to cool off. Ken is enchanted by the city; Ray is upset because he wants to go back to Dublin.
We learn what has gone wrong with the hit in replayed, stark flashbacks. Ray confesses his intention to kill a priest and kills the same priest in the confesional. And then he kills a boy waiting for his confession.
To Harry (Ralph Fiennes) the killing of the priest was a business, but killing the boy is just acceptable. Ray is wrestling with the nightmares while they are waiting, as instructed, for the boss’s phone call what’s next.
Ken goes around the city discovering its beauty, strangeness and novelty. Ray complains, unable to comprehend beauty of inanimate objects, until they happen onto a film shot in the streets. Immediately , Ray is enchanted. Later he gets to meet Chloe and the dwarf actor, Jimmy. Blubbering, cocaine user, minor hitman, charmed by female bodies, that’s Ray.
What happens to Ken is far more interesting. Among the spiral staircases, canals and medieval squires Ken, who went off the rail in the past, is slowly losing the scales covering his eyes, he is changing. And then phone call comes. One the strongest, and strangest scenes takes place between Ken and Harry.
Billed as a dark human comedy, it has comical moments, but farcical human characteristics make it remain on the dark side. Among the combination of medieval city, strange film sets, nightmares and the reality of living the life of hit man, the film attempts to question everything from morality to responsibility.
The lack of understanding among the people involved ,plays well; take the hotel owner who refuses to leave her hotel, to make room for deadly confrontation she doesn’t understand, and possibly doesn’t even believe. That is not her world.
Bodies leave blood trails in a town full of tourist and stodgy citizens. There are cutting jokes aimed at Americans. And the wrestling with discovery that there might not be a way back, that once you crossed certain line, you will end up in Hieronymus Bosh’s vision of Hell because Heaven is closed to you.
Colin Farrell is the proverbial confused Irishman born on the wrong side of the tracks, easily pissed, embarrassed buffoon. Perhaps this is more his fare than romantic heroes.
Brendan Gleeson, older man with a body of a baseball player gone soft, brings quite a bit of humanity to Ken. It is believable, ordinary humanity of relatively simple man.
Ralph Fiennes is not his usual polished self. He is cockney, hard, harsh with sever for mouth and rage bubbling right under the surface. It serves Harry well.
Martin McDonagh is a playwright with number of credits on Broadway and in West End. It shows in the use of language, repetitive phrasing with inflections acting the meaning. Film is a different genre, and the twists in this film often defy logic and border on goofy. In Bruges is McDonagh first feature. It is not as polished, or even as good, as his plays are; on the other hand, among the sea of killer movies, it stands out on its own for humor, observation and questions asked.
Directed, written by Martin McDonagh. Camera: Eigil Bryld; editor, Jon Gregory; music, Carter Burwell; music supervisor, Karen Elliott; production designer, Michael Carlin; art director, Chris Lowe; set decorator, Anna Lynch-Robinson; costume designer, Jany Temime; Cast: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poesy, Jeremie Renier, Thekla Reute, Jordan Prentice, Zeljko Ivanek, Eric Godon MPAA Rating: R.
