Dark, Dark, Dark

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2008)

They're all here. The Big issues. I refer not to some huge pile of copies of the shabby magazine the UK homeless use to fund their narcotic predilections, but to the weighty literary themes: death, love, honour, friendship, sacrifice and (possibly) redemption.
All this wrapped in a shroud of the darkest black humour, and topped with a comedy bad guy. Comedy baddest guy, actually, because all the main speaking parts in this movie, except for one, are "bad guys" when measured by the traditional moral yardstick. We have hit men, drug dealers, petty thieves, prostitutes and casual racist "midgets", all in the undeniably picturesque setting of Bruges... it's in Belgium.
Colin Farrell, who I had previously thought to have the killer combination of good looks and bad acting, delivers an excellent comedic performance with impeccable timing. But it is Brendan Gleeson as his friend and partner in crime who steals the show. Ralph Fiennes steps out of typecast to deliver a chillingly surreal yet down-to-earth cock-er-ney gangster in a Will Self plays Bill Sykes manner.
Other comments and the forums ask "how did it end". And for me, it ends like it ends - what you choose to believe happens next is up to you. But it doesn't feel unresolved.