Nothing Else Like It...

Rating: 9/10 (14 July 2008)

Just when I was seriously lamenting the lack of any originality in film-making in the past few months, along comes IN BRUGES to prove me dead wrong, and I'm glad for it! Wonderfully impossible to classify, it ranks right up there with the best of the Coen Brothers' blackly funny crime romps like FARGO, BLOOD SIMPLE and THE BIG LEBOWSKI, yet swirls in the best parts of Guy Ritchie's "geezer" films as well, with just a dash of existential angst for flavor.
Mature, sanguine Ray (HARRY POTTER'S Brendan Gleeson) and his hot-headed yet soft-hearted protégé Ken (a fantastic Colin Farrell) have been ordered by their boss to spend a few days cooling their heels in the picturesque, Medieval city of Bruges in Belgium, after an "assignment" they were taking care of backfires in a completely horrific way. Oh, did I happen to mention that the two buddies are hit men, and that it's Ken's actions that fouled up their latest "job"?
The two men's polar opposite reactions to this quaint European city tell so much about the characters, and both actors take every opportunity they've been given and run with it. Gleeson, who's done everything from horror (28 DAYS LATER), to comedy (THE SNAPPER) to a combination of both (LAKE PLACID) shines here as the seasoned vet, and Farrell, who's had a real tough time picking projects that make the most of his considerable talent, has never been better.
Against this postcard-ready backdrop, like a rumpled, modern-day answer to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, Ray and Ken ponder the ironic finality of death, the perplexing puzzle of life and what their part in it really is, and how anyone could (or could not) spend their lives living in "f***ing Bruges". While they wait to hear from Harry, their boss (the excellent Ralph Fiennes, who doesn't show up until halfway in, but blows us away when he does), they while away the time sight-seeing and sampling the local beer. A movie shoot taking place in the town square figures prominently, as the movie pokes fun at itself with wry and refreshing self-awareness. A beautiful local girl named Chloe (Clemence Poesy) and a dwarf named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), both connected in their own way to the movie-within-the-movie, figure prominently in the events that occur later that affect both men in a way that both shatters and surprises.
Irish playwright Martin McDonagh wears both writer and director hats here for the first time, and both fit him like a glove. The dialogue is very realistic, with just enough whimsy to delight the audience and define the characters without being too clever or precious about it. And the dark, bitter ending offsets the movie's earlier sweetness just right...sort of like really good Belgian chocolate, like the kind I'm sure you can get...IN BRUGES.
Kudos to everyone involved for producing a marvelous piece that feels independent but not contrived.