A Masterpiece

Rating: 10/10 (26 January 2018)

This movie achieves so much, but remains so focused, so easy to understand and streamlined, it amazes me again and again. I hardly re-watch any movies this is one of the few I do rewatch every other year. It has everything you could ask for: humour, love, thought, action and nice visuals.
In Bruges takes the dust of the gangster-genre by putting in more of a connection to the viewer. We get to see shootouts, drugs and prostitutes, punches being thrown around, etc. yes, but what we also get are relateable character, which actions and motives are quite relateable.
It has a quite enjoyable sense of humour that is never misplaced, which i imagine is very difficult in such a violent and emotional movie.
The leadroles all do an amazing job and help a lot to understand what the characters are feeling.
The love-story isnt that deep and rich, but absolutely makes sense in the movie. It is believable and you do want to see it flourish, so it absolutely serves its purpose in the plot.
The location is amazing, the words "fairytale town" are used several times and that pretty much describes it pretty well. The way it is shot and the time of the year (christmas) add a romantic, but also cold and lonely touch to it (lonely because bruges is "a shithole"). The fairy tale theme is woven not only into the visuals, but also some parts of the story can remind you of a fairy tale.
Soundtrack is another aspect I love about this movie, just like the plot, the location and the character Ray, it adds to the feeling of this sad, yet beautiful tale.
To top it off, we get some stuff to ponder over. Atonement is a big deal here. Where is the line between good and evil, what should you do if you did something horrible and so on.
All this is blended together so well, that it has been one of my favorite movies for about 7 years now and Im planning on watching it again some time.