Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson) take in the sights.
Focus Features - rated R
Accidental Tourists
The debut feature film from an acclaimed playwright is full of surprises.
IN BRUGES, written and directed by Martin McDonagh.
by Steve Taylor
After a London assassination job goes wrong, Irish hit men Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are ordered by their employer Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to the quaint Flemish town of Bruges to hide out until the heat dies down. From the start, Ray is twitchy and frustrated to be stuck in such a small, slow-paced town. As Ken placidly enjoys the sights of the best-preserved medieval city in Belgium, Ray drinks and complains and babbles nervously, at least until he stumbles across a movie location, where he meets a pretty girl and an irascible dwarf, and starts coming up with his own distractions.
IN BRUGES, from Irish writer-director Martin McDonagh, starts out looking like a fish-out-of-water romantic comedy, all nervy, lively dialogue and punch lines about small towns and fat American tourists. Then it starts sprawling outward kaleidoscopically, with each new twist taking the story in a new direction. Sometimes it's shockingly poignant and touching; at other times, it's a gripping crime drama; then it veers back to comedy. Most surprisingly, for its genre, it's also one of the most moral films I've seen in a long time, in the sense that at its heart lies an ethical dilemma that becomes all-consuming for Farrell's Ray.
Often compared to David Mamet, acclaimed multiple Tony award winner McDonagh's background in the theater helps explain why his feature writing and directing debut unfolds the way it does. IN BRUGES is a dialogue-heavy, unrushed series of reveals that take the story through several distinct acts, all the while balancing whip-crack comedy with expansive character exploration. What is pleasantly surprising, though, is McDonagh's talent for striking visuals.
A lot of the fun of IN BRUGES is in the way the twists improbably bring everything together at the end, and the rest of the fun is in the performances. Having successfully made the transition from overexposed yet underutilized action thriller star to a one-film-a-year artiste, Farrell is given a lot to work with, and he sells it all flawlessly, moving convincingly from offhanded, prickly lout to nervous young lover to disintegrating martyr. Then again, all the leads are deftly cast, and they help turn a light farce with thriller overtones into something deeper and sweeter.
The working-class Irish accents, grubby aesthetic, and surreal, dreamlike interludes inevitably recall the work of other independent filmmakers from the United Kingdom like Neil Jordan, Ken Loach and Mike Leigh. But IN BRUGES resembles their work for larger reasons. When it's funny, it's hilarious; when it's serious, it's powerful; and either way, it's an endless pleasant surprise.
Steve Taylor is a member of Southeastern Film Critics Association. He lives in downtown Wilmington.
