A Most Interesting Blend

Rating: 9/10 (3 February 2009)

I think what impressed me most about this movie is something the actors all say in the one bonus feature of the DVD: it captures and expresses the humanity of the characters no matter what they may be or do. Somehow even in the worst of behavior they are still very real, very human, very complex, flawed and noble simultaneously.
I really like this film. I liked the premise: two shady guys from the 20th Century on the lam in a perfectly preserved Medieval city whose sureness of architectural line and composition stands in stark contrast to their uncertainty and fear and collective guilt. The stately orderly beauty of the buildings which sit on the cobble stone streets or border the canal with its swans which wends its way through the heart of the city of Bruges and passes under its many small arched bridges create a sense of composure and timelessness. A sense of time frozen as in a Master painting . . . The setting of Bruges as calm backdrop to these frenzied visitors is quite purposeful for the writer/director to allow the mood of incongruity to add to the dark humor. One doesn't really see the trappings of modernity at all. Cars and trucks are almost nonexistent, and even though the boats have motors you don't hear them. It could well be the 14th Century. What we hear instead is the noise of the invading people whose orderliness is fairly nonexistent. The background is still, the people in motion, an emphasis of the tension within the characters.
I believe that nothing here is brand new but cleverly adapted by Martin McDonagh from certain works. While not a cut and paste of other offerings, it borrows heavily from works that are cited either directly or indirectly and most notably the 1970 British film "Performance," which featured a criminal on the lam hiding in a very strange old mansion inhabited by people living a lifestyle very different than the one he knew. Part of the allure of that film was that strange juxtaposition of personae who seemed from other worlds. The other work that "In Bruges" borrows from is Roeg's classic "Don't Look Now" which featured a child/dwarf and the canaled streets and empty facades of the ancient buildings of Venice. Where that movie had a creepiness, this one transposes humor and a dark lightness. Where Roeg used the ambiance of Venice to create an insecurity for characters and audience, the lovely tranquility of Bruges serves to calm the viewer, even though the on screen characters are running at emotional redline. It is also worth noting that the citizens of Bruges are portrayed mostly as in neutral, non-involved. Even when things get out of hand, they maintain a calm very much at odds with the adrenalized British/Irish protagonists.
It is most clever how McDonagh takes us into a movie within a movie while paying homage to the fantasied works of Heironymus Bosch. He suggests that there may a quantity of insanity in the film industry with its fictional depiction of reality, and that no one is immune from being part of that distorted sanity who is participating in any way with cinema, whether as makers, actors, or spectators. His replication through costuming of Bosch figures into the film within film also suggests that every work of art only issues from the mind of a creator, fiction given form.
What is well done is McDonagh's use of language. His script sparkles and breathes strongly. None of the lines delivered by any of the characters fail to delight. He pokes fun at language through his characters' use of certain words and phrases, such as "alcove" to mean "nooks and crannies." A great deal of the likability of this movie for me comes from the script, and I might say that I acted pre-emptively and put on the captioning when I realized that the characters were speaking British English which is far different than American English. It helped to see, and hear what they were saying the better to not miss the nuances of a well done script.
Cast is very good. Most impressive was Brendan Gleeson, who has a truly wonderful camera presence here. Fiennes is very very good as gang leader Harry Water, (another nod to Roeg's criminal boss in "Performance," Harry Flowers), while Farrell does an admirable job all the way through. Farrell obviously enjoyed himself on this one. There were a couple of times when his facial contortions went places I don't think Farrell knew where they were. Great fun.
Rest of cast did what they had to do, and did it well. Lighting, mood, sound were all supportive and well placed. Overall, a very nice dark comedy, and one well worth recommending to others. Given the beauty of the background scenery, I wish I had seen this in a theater, not on DVD at home. Still beautiful on the small screen. A bit bloody though, not for the squeamish or young children. Grade 9 stars.