In Bruges

After a botched hit, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are ordered by their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) to get out of London and go to the Belgian city of Bruges. Bruges is a idyllic town with much of its old medieval architecture still around. The duo are instructed to stay for two weeks and to act like tourists. Ray a Dublin born eternal urbanite takes this news bitterly. He complains and acts petulantly and is only interested when he sees that someone is filming a movie that stars in his words "a midget". Ken older and more wizened to the world finds a glorious tranquility in Bruges and its beauty while dealing like a disapproving father to Ray's behavior.

In Bruges is Martin McDonagh's feature debut. He is a celebrated Irish playwright who seems to have a way with dialog. The core of the film and its best scenes are those that occur between unhappy Ray and patient Ken. There banter is at times playful and humorous at others more harmful. Farrell and Gleeson have a generally good chemistry. Oddly enough or perhaps not the actually casting here adds another element. Farrell's face framed by his bushy eyebrows adds a strong level of believability to his poutiness. Gleeson's older grim features are perfect for his constant displays of delight.

Farrell's portrayal is quite striking. Its subdued and walks a delicate balance between his disdain for the city of Bruges and his own inner demons. He has a charming crassness as he attempts to woo a local woman by telling her he hates her city or when he can't control his thuggish behavior. Gleeson has a sort of gentleness to him that belies a ever present dangerousness. Even Ralph Fiennes is enjoyable with the exception of his horrendous accent which seems to be Fiennes best attempt at imitating Bob Hoskins as a gangster (from Long Good Friday perhaps).

But despite some fine dialog and some well acted scenes, the film isn't without serious problems. Tone for one. It jumps back and forth between a more traditional style fish out of water comedy and more serious discursives on the nature of sin and life. There's the gangster feel and the romance and all this degenerates into a action thriller chase by movie's end. The violence is harsh and bloody with lots of graphic bullet hole head wounds and the like. Most of these elements work in theory or even in the individual scenes but when thread together with other scenes it all gets to be a bit too much. Like its unsure what kind of movie it wants to be.

Pacing is a bit awkward as well and some of the plot elements are so obviously inserted that you know they will have bearing on the finale. All this adds up and overpowers the enjoyment one is getting out of the film. Its as if someone just needs to go to Martin and say calm down, its good but a bit much. Tone it down a little. Still as a first feature length film it has a lot to be admired and presuming he learns from some of his mistakes a future film will be much better. And as I said for me the relationship between Ray and Ken was worth the price of admission.