What with all the autograph signing and top hat shopping, I don't have the chance to see every single movie in the theater.
I just try to see whatever looks best. Unless its competition has an alien in it. Because then I will watch the alien.
Sometimes, though, you swing and you miss. I missed 2008's In Bruges. It's time to right some wrongs.
After hitman Colin Farrell botches a job, he and partner Brendan Gleeson are sent to Bruges, Belgium, to cool their heels. Mid-visit, with Gleeson soaking up the culture and Farrell going stir-crazy, Gleeson gets the call from their boss. Farrell's crime can't be forgiven. He must be killed.
The story of the hitman who suddenly finds a hit called on him is about as fresh as the hamburger I ate 10 minutes ago, and I'm already feeling so sick I forget if I speak English woozle wozzle bananana. Few films take their death-centric plots as lightly and as seriously as In Bruges.
We all know violence is funny. Quick, punch the nearest person in the face and try not to laugh. Can't be done. In Bruges augments the physical comedy with dialogue so dark and witty it would work in a play, which probably sounds insightful, except I didn't think of that until after I looked up first-time writer/director Martin McDonagh and learned he writes those too. I bet they're good.
The real trick is he doesn't limit himself to humor. Farrell's done something bad, you see. Something very bad. Worse than senselessly punching the nearest person, you sociopath. McDonagh explores, with real insight, whether Farrell deserves to go on living, and if so, what he should do with his life.
I know. YAWN! But if moral quandaries aren't your thing, there is a dwarf with strong opinions on race wars. And Farrell playing matador with bovine American tourists. And a plot that's always taking strange turns without feeling quirky or forced.
That's In Bruges's secret strength. Ambivalent, funny criminals aren't any newer than assassins who suddenly find themselves on the wrong end of a job, but McDonagh doesn't rely on that stuff for his tension. In Bruges is in constant motion, throwing its characters into big messes whenever they make the smallest mistake, then turning the tables again just minutes later. It's what you'd call an "organic plot" if you were the sort of jerkwad who says things like that.
Despite being a funny, twisty, thoughtful little film, In Bruges only grossed half its budget. Let's give it some rental love.
* Ed Robertson now lives in Southern California. His new collection of short stories, When We Were Were Mutants, is available on Amazon.com. Contact him at edwrobertson@gmail.com.
