CS Weekly Archive > Weekend Read > 2/08/08

A Worthy Destination

By jason Davis

Filmmaker Martin McDonagh fuses the character-based drama of the stage with a cinematic outlook to create a surreal insight into the human condition In Bruges, courtesy of two diametrically different hitmen touring the eponymous European city.

In Bruges

Martin McDonagh (also directed)

After an assassination goes terribly wrong, Irish hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are dispatched to the medieval Belgian village of Bruges to lie low while their boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes), sorts things out. While the thoughtful Ken revels in the architecture and artistry of the picturesque burgh, the highly strung Ray insults other tourists, hits on a local drug dealer (Clémence Poésy), and harasses an American dwarf (Jordan Prentice) who's starring in a pastiche of Nicolas Roeg's 1973 film Don't Look Now. As the two men react to the surreality of the town around them, the true nature of their "vacation" becomes clear and things take a dark turn as the shadow of death settles over Bruges.

McDonagh's origins as a playwright are apparent in the rich byplay of Ken and Ray in what amounts to a two-hander for most of the film. Though their conversations have all the sparkle of Quentin Tarantino's best dialogue, the lines are given added weight by the sense that there are deeper psychological meanings to be divined from the banter. For the two characters, Bruges becomes a binary locale—heaven for Ken and hell for Ray. This disparity is reinforced by Ken's attraction to the local churches, while Ray spends his time investigating a sinister film set meant to recall the serial-killer stalking ground of Don't Look Now. With the revelation of what went wrong with Ray's botched hit, it's easy to average the two men's experiences and conclude that Bruges is, in fact, purgatory.

Despite McDonagh's facility for crafting exemplary characters and filling their mouths with the eloquently profound, the first-time director has done far more than film a play. Bruges itself becomes a key character in the story, and its sense of melancholy and strangeness pervades every scene. This is a story that would ring hollow on the stage without the ancient cathedrals in which Ken and Ray converse about religion, the desolate park where both men change their lives, and the domestic armory where Harry tries to purchase a sensible gun from a Russian eager to offer weapons of mass destruction. As much as the setting establishes the tone, Bruges' inhabitants complete the film's outré atmosphere. Yuri (Eric Godon), the aforementioned arms dealer, extols the virtues of the town's alcoves for taking care of business. The diminutive film actor pontificates about a war between black and white midgets. An inept thief (Jérémie Renier) whines about a bungled mugging. Though the catalogue of curious characters may sound like an assemblage of David Lynch rejects, they each play an integral part in the narrative while existing outside the overall context of the film as jewels of characterization.

Despite the weightiness of the issues explored within the story and the inherent somberness of the city, In Bruges never wallows in solemnity. It is, at once, hysterically poignant and cuttingly insightful, with its moments of contemplation punctuated by outrageous laughs. Most importantly, the movie has something to say about the responsibility we have toward others and to ourselves to be better than what we think we can be.

Having claimed an Academy Award for his first short film ("Six Shooter"), Martin McDonagh doesn't disappoint with his feature-length debut, doing more with two hours than most other filmmakers manage in a decade of moviemaking.

In Bruges
Focus Features
Rated R; 101 min. 

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Jason Davis has been the DVD Manager for CS Weekly, a contributing editor for Creative Screenwriting Magazine, and has written for Cinescape.com, MSN.com, and created the TV series Studio 13, which ran on Lorne Michaels' Burly TV network. He lives in the small space left over by his ever-expanding library of books, movies, and music.

In Bruges courtesy Focus Features

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