IN BRUGES - movie review
The movie IN BRUGES is the darkest of dark comedies. The squabbling and confusions and wacko developments are indeed funny -- perhaps the reliance on "midget" humor is a little too much -- but it's all created from within the character interactions. When you ground your plot developments like that, even the zaniest things can make sense and become part of the overall surreal tone. But the darkness is really there too. And it's gory, bloody, head-bursting-open type darkness. Multiple characters! Be warned!
The fact that it can be as funny as it is, with this violence and the way Colin O'Farrell's character is using hedonism to fight off a mental breakdown, is to its great credit. Good ol' Brendan Gleeson, the hefty Irish actor you've seen in a dozen movies (including his on-going Mad-Eye Mooney in HARRY POTTER), plays a mob-type guy with a lot of soul. When he and Colin are sent to hide out in Bruges, he finds it such a wonderful place that his heart grows five sizes bigger, a la the Grinch. Colin plays his disgruntled part with his shoulders up around his ears and his heavy eyebrows in hilarious scowls. Really, that guy has a face like a cartoon, and it's used to great effect in this movie. When he becomes overwhelmed by thoughts of what he's done, his anguish is so human, it really offsets the cartoon stuff.
Ralph Fiennes plays their mob boss, mostly heard through the telephone speaking gutter-type Londonese with a weird, soft high voice. But he's a bloody man, a pscyho in fact, and when he gets mad he's not even able to control himself. However, he has some code of honor among thieves that makes him idiosyncratic. The tension and twists when he shows up in Bruges himself are fascinating and surprising. Boy, and dark as it gets.
Recommended, with the caveat that there will be blood.
UPDATE: It got an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay!
The fact that it can be as funny as it is, with this violence and the way Colin O'Farrell's character is using hedonism to fight off a mental breakdown, is to its great credit. Good ol' Brendan Gleeson, the hefty Irish actor you've seen in a dozen movies (including his on-going Mad-Eye Mooney in HARRY POTTER), plays a mob-type guy with a lot of soul. When he and Colin are sent to hide out in Bruges, he finds it such a wonderful place that his heart grows five sizes bigger, a la the Grinch. Colin plays his disgruntled part with his shoulders up around his ears and his heavy eyebrows in hilarious scowls. Really, that guy has a face like a cartoon, and it's used to great effect in this movie. When he becomes overwhelmed by thoughts of what he's done, his anguish is so human, it really offsets the cartoon stuff.
Ralph Fiennes plays their mob boss, mostly heard through the telephone speaking gutter-type Londonese with a weird, soft high voice. But he's a bloody man, a pscyho in fact, and when he gets mad he's not even able to control himself. However, he has some code of honor among thieves that makes him idiosyncratic. The tension and twists when he shows up in Bruges himself are fascinating and surprising. Boy, and dark as it gets.
Recommended, with the caveat that there will be blood.
UPDATE: It got an Oscar nomination for best original screenplay!