In Bruges (2008)

I remember when I first saw a trailer for this movie, it depicted the murder of a priest at a confessional, and that immediately left a bad taste in my mouth. So I was at first ill disposed to this movie, but then I started to hear its praise as a black comedy, and that it was unusually well written, critics liked, Colin Farrell was apparently tolerable. So when I finally got around to seeing it last week I was much better disposed toward this film then I had been at first, though ultimately its not what I expected. Well a fair portion of it was kind of like what I expected, but the ending, things really went in an unexpected direction in the second half.

The story concerns two hit men played by Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. Farrell's hit on the priest from the trailer went bad and he accidentally killed a little boy in the process. The two's mysterious boss, later found to be Ralph Fiennes, sends them out of England to lie low for a time and await further instructions, there place of exile, Bruge. For those who don't know Bruge is a town in Belgium, famous for its abundance of well maintained medieval architecture, and thus a low level tourist mecca. While Gleeson likes Bruge just fine, Farrell goes a little stir crazy there, and stricks up a sort of friendship with a 'midget' American actor ( Jordan Prentice) and finds a love interest in a production assistant/small time drug dealer played by Clémence Poésy. Plot point: you see a movie is conveniently being filmed in Bruge.

Anyway eventually Gleeson receives the long awaited call from Fiennes, only to find that his instructions are to kill Farrell for killing the kid. Gleeson reluctantly goes to do this, but when he comes on Farrell in a park he finds Farrell about to kill himself. Gleeson prevents Farrell's suicide, they have a long talk, and Gleeson sends Farrell off on a train to parts unknown for his own good. Finnes is upset when Glesson tells him that he did not kill Farrell but let him go, and so he travel to Bruge himself to deal with the situation. Farrell meanwhile is forced back to Bruge when he is arrested on the train for beating up a couple of Canadian tourist some nights before.

So they all end up in Bruge for what is sure to be a violent confrontation, and it is. Things go in different directions here, there's black comedy, and an unexpected amount of pathos, and the movie proves to be not so much the joke on violence I had  expected (ala Shoot 'Em Up) but quite the indictment of it. I was surprised, made to think a little, but much of the movie still feels directionless, and you can only take so much of Colin Farrell. It's got me curious to experince more of director Martin McDonagh's work, to bad there doesn't seem to be a lot of it. **1/2