In Bruges dir. by

18 March 2008


Genre: ,
Script:
Cast: , , ,
Setting:

In BrugesRay and Ken are two Irish hit-men hiding out after a job. Hiding out in Bruges on orders from their boss, Harry. Ken is all set to relax and enjoy the medieval scenery and architecture. Visit the castles and churches. Harry says it is like fairy tale, coming in on the canal. Ray isn’t so sure of that, but when he comes upon a film shot he is much more interested.

And that is enough of a plot recap. Any more would be to give away details that might spoil the enjoyment of the film. Suffice to say that this is a really good film.

Like all great films this is a hard one to categorize. It is as thriller, but it isn’t. It is a comedy, but at the same time it is much more. I’ll be all clichéd and tell you that you’ll laugh and you’ll cry. Maybe not, but you’ll have a good time.

After all it has Brendan Gleeson, and he, quite simply, is the man. He is perfect as Ken. With his morals and his honour. Farrell too is wonderful. For a while now he hasn’t been great, but this performance reminded me a little of his character in Intermission, only he has more heart, and is more developed as an actual character. He is depressed and sarky, and not at all impressed with boring Bruges. Fiennes, when he shows up, is at first almost a cartoon bad-guy, but pretty quickly he becomes much more of a character.A bad guy, no doubt, but one with a code. However messed up that may be. Plus, he did try his best for “the boy”. Sending him to Bruges because he has happy memories of the place.

Go see and enjoy. If nothing else you’ll come away thinking, “hmmm, Bruges might be a nice place to visit.”

IMDb ; MetaCritic ; Roger Ebert ; Cinematical ; Golden Grouches

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