While the genre of a hitman charged by his boss of offing another hitman has been done previously, never has it been done with such gusto (by which I mean violence), oddness, and heart - yes heart - as director Martin McDonagh's version, In Bruges. When the new-hitman-on-the-block, Ray (Colin Farrel in excellent form), ends up botching his first hit and murders not only his target, Father so-and-so, but also a young boy his boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes) sends him and his older, wiser, more experienced mentor-hitman, Ken (Brendan Gleeson) to Bruges, Belgium to recoup. But Harry's just trying to be kind and show Ray a city he adores before ordering Ken to off the lad for killing a boy (hitmen have a code it seems and killing little boys is high on their ten commandment list of no-nos). What results when Ken defies his boss and lets Ray free is funny, tragic, honest and - gory violence aside - worth the ride. In Bruges is one of those oh-too-rare films that demonstrates what can result when the perfect cast, the perfect location and the perfect script come together: magnificent film-making with a message that goes deeper then its violence, and if you pardon the pun (if you've seen the movie) dwarfs all others in its class.
My rating 9 out of 10.
No comments:
Post a Comment