nan | 楠木

In Bruges is a frustrating film. It has many good things going for it, but never cumulates into a coherent story. Instead, the end result is a confusing film that’s too slow to be a thriller and too serious to be a dark comedy.

Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson play two contract killers (Ray and Ken, respectively) who are in Bruges to wait out the fallout of a hit gone wrong. The city’s sights and deep history have an obvious appeal to Ken, but Ray is bored and suffering from a guilty conscience of having killed a boy. He tries to divert his attention by hooking up with some very eccentric characters, including a girl selling drugs which he falls for and a “midget” involved in a film production. Meanwhile, Ken receives orders to whack Ray (isn’t that always the case with mob films). Instead of doing as he’s told, Ken lets Ray go, which obviously does not go well with his boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes), who takes matters into his own hands. And so on and so forth.

The plot itself is mildly interesting, but more or less standard mob genre material. But that’s beside the point really, as this film is supposed to be a character study and a witty comedy full of black humor. The character study centralizes on Ray, who is tormented by his guilt, and Colin Farrell does give a credible and at times impressive performance. Brendan Gleeson has the role of the experienced and jaded professional reflecting upon his career and making moral choices. Ralph Fiennes clearly had fun with his character, a temperamental hit-man who talks about honor and conduct.

The humor, in perhaps a typically British style, fits quite well with the characters, but not so well with the overall story. The film has some particularly disturbing / gloomy moments (especially towards the climax), and to make the tone consistent, the humor is very subdued and only rarely takes center stage. And then there are a few really odd scenes, which seems to be screaming at the audience as proof of this film’s indie roots, but doesn’t contribute to the plot development – in short, they are out of place. Perhaps the director is trying too hard – the end result is a film that has a few fine points but on the whole is not satisfying enough.

6/10