Review - In Bruges

I've only visited Bruges once. A quaint little medieval town in Belgium, it was a nice place to wander around but I was glad to leave after spending half a day there. In this entertaining and violent comedy thriller, hitmen Ray and Ken (Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson) have to spend two weeks there. They are awaiting instructions from their boss Harry (a barnstorming Ralph Fiennes) after a hit they performed went horribly wrong. Ken is entranced by Bruges and falls in love with the architecture and people. Ray doesn't hide his hatred of Bruges and can't wait to leave. I sympathised with Ray more.

While awaiting instructions from Harry, Ray and Ken learn more about Bruges, the people there, and about themselves. Their backstory is told in well crafted flashbacks, and their escapades in Bruges are funny and interesting. Ray finds himself falling in love with local drug dealer Chio (Clémence Poésy) while Ken falls in love with Bruges itself. Things eventually escalate so that Harry ends up visiting the boys which leads to a violent and shocking finale.

Bruges makes a good looking backdrop for the film and the cinematography is excellent, really making good use of the scenery Bruges has to offer. The script by Martin McDonagh, who also directs, is very good. There's a sly and often subtle sense of humour running throughout, even when things start getting bloody. The characters are sensitively handled and the acting is excellent– Farrell initially has a brash exterior which is seemingly impenetrable but we discover over the course of the film how fragile and conflicted he really is. Gleesen plays his role as a sort of father figure to Farrell and it comes off well. Fiennes gets to chew up the scenery in a largely one note role as a psychotic gangster. He's a lot of fun though and really makes an impression in the small amount of screen time he's given.

I thoroughly enjoyed In Bruges, its low key but funny humour and obvious love for its characters working really well on screen.