In Bruges
Written and directed by Martin McDonaugh
Focus
2008
Rating:


"In Bruges" is a dark comedy with essentially two jokes. The first is obvious: the movie is set in Bruges, Belgium's best preserved medieval town. Besides the town being small and in Belgium (apparently a joke in itself to the British), Bruges is also a punchline because it's where hitmen Ken (Colin Farrell) and Ray (Brendan Gleeson) have been sent by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) after a job gone wrong. The predictably mismatched Ken (young and petulant) and Ray (old and cultured) would've been absurd sent anywhere on vacation together, but the sight of them making their way through Bruges' canals, churches with vials supposedly containing Jesus' blood and museums with Hieronymus Bosch's triptych "The Last Judgement" – with its left wing "Paradise," right wing "Hell" and central panel "Last Judgement" inspiring existential questions for the troubled Ken – is meant to be especially mirthful.

The second joke is midgets. A Dutch film crew is in Bruges making a surreal movie that's seemingly inspired by Bosch, Federico Fellini and Tom DiCillo's "Living in Oblivion" in equal measure. Among the film's cast is a misanthropic American dwarf, Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), who takes horse tranquilizers to get through the day. Ken finds the idea of dwarves and their alleged inclination to commit suicide to be hilarious, and apparently so does the movie. The only thing funnier, apparently, is a racist dwarf and so Jimmy, for no particular reason, goes off on a drug-fueled rant about his prediction of a coming war between the whites and every other race in the world. Ken, predictably, is amused at the thought of white dwarves fighting black dwarves.

Humorous references to alcoves, gays and the crassness of Americans also appear with alarming frequency in "In Bruges," a movie that never meets a joke it doesn't think should be a running gag. None of this is particularly funny, and the film falls even harder when it turns more serious because of how badly the obtuse humor clashes with the teary-eyed moral wrangling. The movie fares better when it's in crime thriller mode, a shift it easily makes when Fiennes shows up doing his impression of Ben Kingsley in "Sexy Beast."

The best praise that can lavished upon "In Bruges" is that writer-director Martin McDonaugh (an Oscar-winner for his short film "Six Shooter" but better known for his violent, profane, Tony-nominated plays "The Pillowman" and "The Lieutenant of Inishmore") takes his inspiration from Quentin Tarantino and, to a lesser extent, Martin Scorsese rather than Guy Ritchie. McDonaugh's feature debut is richly photographed and refreshingly absent of Ritchie's visual trickery. He's also good with actors: Farrell's performance, which could've been a rehash of his equally guilt-ridden Terry in "Cassandra's Dream," is distinctly different and frequently funny; and Gleeson brings pathos to the clichιd role of the elder, wiser hitman. What McDonaugh fails at is expanding his world outside the proscenium arch and knowing when to stop a joke before it falls flat.

Ironically, for all of Ken's moaning about Bruges being "shit," "In Bruges'" biggest triumph is bound to be increasing tourism to the medieval town. It is a very pretty looking place.

Posted Tuesday, February 12, 2008

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