Holed up in Bruges, Belgium after a difficult job, two hit men begin to differ on their views of life and death as they become used to local customs.
- movie-list.com

Martin McDonagh, an award-winning playwright and Academy Award winner for his short Six Shooter, makes his feature debut with a work that is deliriously funny, pointed, and perverse, yet sad, thoughtful, and infused with a moral vision that resonantly reflects today’s surreal world.

The film takes place in a storybook setting, the preserved medieval Flemish town of Bruges, where two hit men, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson), have been ordered to cool their heels among holiday tourists after a botched execution. Though he feels out of place amid the Gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, Ken is drawn to the serenity of the place as he tries to sooth Ray’s haunted psyche. As they wait for their boss Harry’s (Ralph Fiennes’s) call, they are caught up in a series of weird encounters with locals, tourists, a dwarf American filmmaker, and Dutch prostitutes and a romantic liaison that is not what it seems. When the call finally comes, it prompts a life-and-death struggle that is violent, darkly comic, and surprisingly touching.

The Irish are without peer in making us laugh about ourselves, life, and especially things that aren’t supposed to be funny. The profane brilliance of McDonagh’s writing is all that and more. Galvanized by perceptive performances and framed by a unique beauty, this is filmmaking at its most exhilarating.
–Geoffre Gilmore

Mr. McDonagh makes his feature directorial debut on the film, from his own original screenplay. Bruges (pronounced “broozh”), the most well-preserved medieval city in the whole of Belgium, is a welcoming destination for travellers from all over the world. But for hit men Ray Colin Farrell and Ken Brendan Gleeson, it could be their final destination; a difficult job has resulted in the pair being ordered right before Christmas by their London boss Harry (two-time Academy Award nominee Ralph Fiennes) to go and cool their heels in the storybook Flemish city for a couple of weeks.

Very much out of place amidst the gothic architecture, canals, and cobbled streets, the two hit men fill their days living the lives of tourists. Ray, still haunted by the bloodshed in London, hates the place, while Ken, even as he keeps a fatherly eye on Ray’s often profanely funny exploits, finds his mind and soul being expanded by the beauty and serenity of the city.

But the longer they stay waiting for Harry’s call, the more surreal their experience becomes, as they find themselves in weird encounters with locals, tourists, violent medieval art, a dwarf American actor (Jordan Prentice) shooting a European art film, Dutch prostitutes, and a potential romance for Ray in the form of Chloë (Clémence Poésy), who may have some dark secrets of her own. And when the call from Harry does finally come, Ken and Ray’s vacation becomes a life-and-death struggle of darkly comic proportions and surprisingly emotional consequences.
- Wikipedia

ExP: Jeff Abberley, Julia Blackman, Tessa Ross
Pr: Graham Broadbent, Peter Czerin
Ci: Eigil Bryld
Ed: Jon Gregory

Colin Farrell gets first laughs at Sundance

Colin Farrell at the Sundance Film Festival: "Political correctness and freedom of expression don't really live in the same realm..."
Photo: AP

Dublin-born heart-throb Colin Farrell says he was pleased to get a few laughs in his first dark comedy, which opened the Sundance Film Festival this week.

"I'm not known for having a funny bone in my body," he told reporters the morning after the world premiere of award-winning playwright Martin McDonagh's In Bruges, about gangsters on vacation in Belgium.

"What's it like to do a comedy? It was nice to hear the laughter last night (at the premiere). It's lovely. I've never experienced such a tangible reaction like that before, so it's nice," he said.

"It's good for the soul."

This year is Farrell's first at Sundance, held in the US state of Utah.

In contrast to the dramatic pieces Farrell has done in the past seven years including Phone Booth, The Recruit and Hart's War, "this was an incredibly funny script to read", he said.

"The comedy, after initially getting kind of inured to it, the closer I got to the piece and the closer I got to understanding the character, the more the comedy became something that would be enjoyed objectively, and something that I wasn't even aware of anymore."

The film stars Farrell and Brendan Gleeson as two London contract killers ordered by their boss (Ralph Fiennes) to take a vacation in a medieval town in Belgium, after a badly botched job.

The film is "brutal, philosophical, funny and totally original," said Geoffrey Gilmore, director of the Sundance film festival.

"It's about killing people, but it's funny," added programmer John Cooper.

McDonagh earlier expressed concern the film might not be well-received by American audiences as it pokes fun at obesity, racism, dwarves, Americans and a litany of other targets without paying heed to political correctness.

The script is also amply laced with profanity so much so, quipped Farrell, who is renown for his foul mouth, that he had to step up his own swearing for the role.

But, laughter roared across the cinema at its premiere late yesterday.

"Political correctness and freedom of expression don't really live in the same realm," commented Farrell. "Freedom of speech, of course, is what made this country great."