Blood and Redemption in Bruges.

Rating: Null/10 (1 March 2009)

This is an interesting movie and I enjoyed it far more than I thought I would. It is extremely bloody, especially towards the end, so although it has its moments of black humour, no one should be under any illusion that this is a light weight comedy. It's not. Trailers I saw in the theatre last year (I finally watched the film on DVD at home) seemed to project In Bruges as some kind of British farce, and like other reviewers here, I find the actuality of the movie different to, but better than, the trailers had suggested. I'm not sure what prompts movie publicists to misrepresent movies, because In Bruges is good enough to stand on its own merit as a black comedy drama. Suggesting it's some kind of light comedy just brings in unsuspecting viewers who will be upset at the blood.
Written and directed by Martin McDonagh the action is set in the unlikely locale of Bruges, a beautiful medieval town and UNESCO World Heritage Site in the north west of Belgium. Part of the irony of course, is that this is a movie about hit men, set in a place of astonishing beauty and in a nation widely believed (whether justly or unjustly is not for me to say) to be one of the most boring on earth. Better known for fine lace and beer, Bruges itself is one of the movie's stars and its architecture provides the backdrop to the violent action. This sets it apart from run of the mill hit men movies where we normally see people being wasted in deserted warehouses and on bleak streets. Here they expire before stunning ancient monuments on pretty cobbled streets or fall to their deaths from popular tourist haunts.
Ray (Colin Farrell) plays an Irish hit man who has accidentally killed a child. The actual target was a priest, but while assassinating the priest a bullet went straight through him and into the child that Ray hadn't seen. Boss Harry Waters (Ralph Fiennes) packs him off to Bruges to wait while the situation cools down, in the care of Ken (Brendan Gleeson), the moral centre of the film. Ken is very taken with the culture and beauty of Bruges and treats the interlude as an unexpected and rather welcome vacation. Ray, a fish out of water, is unimpressed with the culture around him and initially whines that he is bored. He hooks up with a local woman Chloe and passes the time drinking. But we gradually see him disintegrate psychologically as the enormity of his crime sinks in. He killed a child. Can he redeem himself from such a crime in any meaningful way? The denouement comes after Ken discovers that Harry's plans for him go well beyond just being Ray's minder.
The whole cast is excellent. This is probably the best work I've ever seen Colin Farrell do, I've never been a fan of his before. Ralph Fiennes gets his teeth into being a baddie and pulls off a passably good Cockney accent. Reviewing this movie prompted me to look at Fiennes profile on IMDb, and the range of characters he can play is just enormous. This is an actor who can make Voldemort real in the Harry Potter films, who played a gay butler in Bernard and Doris and a repressed lord in period costume in the Duchess, and I recall his as the stand out performance from The Constant Gardener some years back.
And speaking of Harry Potter, In Bruges is something of a cast reunion. Brendan Gleeson, excellent as Ken, is one of those actors with a resume which appears to require extra bandwidth. Gleeson played Mad-Eye Moody in Harry Potter and it was also interesting to see Clémence Poesy again. Poesy plays Chloe  Ray's love interest - and I last recall her from a Harry Potter film too! She is perfect as small time crook and drug dealer Chloe who may or may not eventually help Ray redeem himself.
A very politically incorrect movie. If the very idea of redemption from murder offends then just don't watch it. Personally I found the writing, acting and setting refreshingly original.