In Bruges

You may not know that Bruges is an actual real place, before seeing "In Bruges", I never knew it existed, but as one character observes at the beginning of the film "it's in Belgium", who knew? In the film "In Bruges", this little city nobody has ever heard of is the place two hitmen must hideout after a job goes wrong. The hitmen in question are Ray a young impatient hothead (Colin Farrell) and his older more seasoned partner Ken (Brendan Gleeson). Ray has just finished his first hit by killing a priest, but in the process, he accidentally and tragically kills a little boy who was praying in the church.

While in Bruges, the two men are meant to lay low and wait for further instructions by their boss Harry (Ralph Feinnes). Ray grows impatient with Bruges, he's bored out of his mind, while Ken is fascinated by the history, culture, and old buildings, he wants to sight see.

"In Bruges" is a surprising dark comedy with many wonderful lines that are easily quotable, and contain some really human emotional moments by these violent but funny characters. The film was the first by writer/director Martin McDonagh, who was known for writing plays, and actually earned an Oscar for his short film "Six Shooter". He has made one other movie, 2012's "Seven Psychopaths", which was a film I was much impressed by with its very funny dialogue and unique characters.

McDonagh seems to really like his characters, and their relationships to eachother, he gives them time to breath. When Feinnes' Harry does appear in the final third of the film, there is so much build up about him, we know things won't end pretty, yet McDonagh doesn't make Harry into quite the monster he's depicted. In a surprising move, Harry is seen as a rational and moral guy who has time to have a pint with Ken before the inevitable blood and carnage has to begin. It's always refreshing to see men of action talking to eachother, and by the time the final gun battle goes down, there is more at stake, and more suspense and McDonagh doesn't welch on the action even if he plays with it tongue and cheek. During the final gun battle the pregnant motel owner Marie tells Harry and Ray to put their guns down, to which Harry replies "This is the shootout", as sort of a wink to the audience that this is what they expect in the action movie. At that moment, I kind of was reminded in "Seven Psychopaths" where the writer Marty (Also played by Farrell) is writing an action movie, but prefers just to have the people talk in the end, to which is friend Billy (Sam Rockwell) reminds him, you have to have a shootout.

There are also some truly funny moments in the film as well, ones that would rival any straight out comedy made today, it mostly comes from Ray's bizarre relationship with a dwarf (Jimmy Prentice). They also have fun with stereotyping rude American tourists. Ray actually punches out an man in a restaurant who he mistakes for being American, yet he feels bad afterwards when he in fact finds out he was Canadian, as a Canadian myself, I could appreciate that.

But despite all the comedy, "In Bruges" is really dealing about Ray's guilt about killing a kid, and whether or not he should be given the chance to redeem himself. Ken is actually instructed by Harry to kill Ray for his accident, but he has second thoughts, when he sees that Ray himself is actually suicidal over it. The film actually becomes more about forgiving oneself, and also getting that chance for redemption. In the end, it doesn't sentimentalize Ray's situation, and even then when he's put through the ringer, he isn't exactly off the hook, for him Bruges is somewhat of purgatory where he can't seem to escape. The ending of the film could change for you depending weather or not you're a glass is half empty, or glass is half full type of person, for me there is a sliver of hope for Ray.

When it was first release, "In Bruges" was often compared to "Pulp Fiction", I suppose in the way that both films depicted hitmen as regular folk who could talk about regular stuff. Yet Tarantino's film always worked on the grand scale, as it moved around in space and time, telling multiple stories, "In Bruges" is far more intimate, and feels more personal, that's simply an observation, I think both films are great, yet I feel a far better kinship with "In Bruges" as I grow to like Ray, Ken, and Harry, in a way I didn't with Tarantino's film.

I'm pointing this out not to call out "Pulp Fiction" being the lesser film, but more to mention that I think Martin McDonagh is an original voice and makes his own original movies. No doubt he was influenced by Tarantino, but it's only a surface level one, he's not going out of his way to be him.

"In Bruges" is one of the best movies to come out in the last ten years, the more I watch it, the more I really love the characters, and admire its screenplay. Right now, I suppose it could be considered as a cult movie, people I know who have seen it all say how much they love it, and how much they can quote from it. I suppose that's one way to know when a movie is great.