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In Bruges

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Editorial Review

Fookin' Colin Farrell as a boozy, druggy Oirish hitman in a flick that also stars Brendan Gleeson as his rumpled offsider and Ralph Fiennes as a Cockney mob boss? The quirky warning goes to amber! Opening night film at Sundance 2008? Make that a red alert!

But no need to be alarmed, as it turns out, for In Bruges is a broad black comedy with an unexpectedly warm centre. Much of the success is down to writer-director Martin McDonagh's making Ray a thickhead. We're so used to seeing assassins who just happen to also be pop culture-literate hipsters, that he's a breath of fresh air. It also restrains Farrell from being too smart-arsey, and instead lets him get his bluntly funny cracks in while directing half his energy to Ray's inner torment as being a good man who's done a very, very bad thing.

This backstory is genuinely shocking, and hangs over In Bruges, a sin against the universe that must be atoned for and balanced out. How McDonagh goes about this is entertaining and in places thrilling, funny and moving. Ultimately, though, he succumbs to the desire for too much circularity, and the film folds in on itself in a way that unnecessarily strains credulity. Pity.

Even so, In Bruges maintains its link to emotional reality via Farrell, who tries hard and does well not to overplay. Same goes for Gleeson and Fiennes, who carve out strangely empathetic figures from what might've been stock characters.

Michael Adams

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