Funny, poignant, genuinely interesting.

Rating: 7/10 (28 December 2012)

Playwright Martin McDonagh makes an assured feature filmmaking debut with this witty and generally amusing combination of dark comedy, sobering drama, crime picture, and travelogue. The Bruges of the title is a Belgian city with a real storybook quality and which is a magnet for the tourist trade. Hit men Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) have been sent there on orders from their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) after a job has been botched and a young boy accidentally killed. They're instructed to take in the sights - which Ken is more than happy to do - while awaiting further orders. But Ray is grumpy and bored and thinks that spending time in Bruges is like spending time in Purgatory. Audiences accustomed to loud and fast action films may possibly find this to be just as dull as Ray finds Bruges, but some may also consider this to be a rather interesting breath of fresh air. It's very dependent on character and situation, and working from McDonaghs' script, the three principal actors do excellent jobs creating well rounded individuals who may be in a morbid line of work but who each have their own moral code. Among the assorted episodes of the story, Ray romances a free spirited local named Chloe (Clemence Poesy), makes the acquaintance of a dwarf named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), gets briefly menaced by Chloes' associate Eirik (Jeremie Renier), roughs up a loud mouthed Canadian guy (!) portrayed by Zeljko Ivanek, and learns the truth about why he and Ken were sent to Bruges in the first place. McDonaghs' dialogue is sometimes surprising and often quite funny; he gives the material an impressively un-P.C. flair. There are spurts of bloody violence here and there, but what the writer / director often sets out to do is actually subvert the conventions of typical crime gone wrong flicks, even coming up with a way to avoid the kind of shootout one might normally see in this sort of thing. Beautiful photography and scenery are of course a credit to the film; the city does become a character in its own right. The music by Carter Burwell is superb at setting the mood. The three leads are terrific, with Fiennes showing a winning aptitude for comedy, and Farrell and Gleeson definitely managing to win our sympathies. They help to make this nicely offbeat film worth seeking out for movie lovers who get tired of more formulaic fare. Recommended. Seven out of 10.