Quirky violent fun

Rating: 8/10 (26 September 2008)

After a job in London goes wrong two hit-men Ray and Ken hide out in picturesque Bruges at their bosses request. Ken the older of the two immediately falls in love with the Belgian medieval city, Ray falls for a Belgian con artist but hates the city. They spend their time discussing and sharing their opinions on life's difficulties and how the badly the previous job had went. All seems fine until their boss makes a call to tell Ken that Ray has to pay for his mistake. On the face of it, In Bruges has classic Noir overtones, but this is played for laughs, although some questionable racial undertones and some extreme violence often break the comedic tone, giving the film an overall quirky feeling. The film never fails to surprise or entertain though, it has a freshness which makes it quite appealing. With so many loose ends to this film, it's a surprise that it all ends up so neat and tidy, the final dream sequence with midgets and masked partygoers wouldn't look out of place in a Herzog film.