"In Bruges" aims high and misses by a mile

Rating: 1/10 (25 May 2012)

"In Bruges" is an ambitious, but ultimately failed attempt to deliver some sort of existential fable... The internal "moral" conflicts of professional assassins weren't amusing in any way or intelligently presented. This subject matter would have any movie director walking on very thin ice. In order to pull it off, the director must display tact, the writer must provide smart dialogue and strong character development; and the actors should skate gracefully. None of those qualities are to be found here.
The sickening violence, relentless verbal assault and cringe-inducing jokes (insults) are not only in very poor taste, but a pathetic display of mediocrity. Add some offensive "moral" considerations (a dwarf's life is apparently less valuable than a child's life, among others) to the variety of cheap tricks to stir some "controversy", and you've got a perfect exploitation flick. I realize the subject matter isn't exactly fairy-tale, but that aggressive vulgarity distracted from everything else. In what bizarro world does that make for "brilliant writing"?
"In Bruges" is just one really bad (in a painful, unfunny way) film that desperately wants to be 'artsy'. It's supposed to be a darkly humorous and insightful take on the human condition, but instead it only disgusts. There's no wit, no finesse, no spark in this movie. Ralph Fiennes and Colin Farrell, two fine actors, are surprisingly ineffective here as a result of an atrocious script. The raving reviews are stupefying
Too bad about Bruges, it's a city too beautiful to be associated with this pseudo-intellectual trash.