In Bruges(2008)
Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh
What an unexpected movie. In essence, Colin Farrel and Mad-Eye Moody play two hitmen, sent to Bruges by their boss (the hilarious Ralph Fiennes), for reasons I won't divulge here. It was marketed as a comedy, but it's not a comedy in the typical modern sense. The humour is found in the events that happen. Some of the "jokes" take the entire movie to play out. Most of the humour is inherent in how these characters talk. I'd always suspected "fuck" to be a flexible word, but I had no idea as to the dizzying heights it could truly reach.
This movie will not be for everyone, if only for the language, and a few moments of extreme-ish violence towards the end. But to focus on those things is to miss the point. This is as magnificently written movie as you'll see. McDonagh is a playwrite, and it shows. Like the best plays, nothing here happens that isn't addressed later. It not only holds up on subsequent viewings, it demands them, and it certainly rewards them. The third time I watched In Bruges, I decided to try and spot something that didn't get addressed in one way or another, and I ended up stumped. The characters are seemless, their relationships are explained in perfect, subtle ways, the events all relate, and the humour, though sparse, is very real. A great movie.
Grade: A
2 comments:
Sparse humor? I wouldn't agree with that. I think that might just depend on what makes you laugh, or amuses you.
I would agree with you, I laugh consistently throughout the movie, but I wanted to over-emphasize the point slightly, as the previews made it seem much different in tone than it really is.
I'm the guy who can't decide whether or not he wants to laugh when we see the reveal of what went wrong with Colin's first hit.
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