I’ve never been Bruges but, unlike the two Irish hit men in this movie, I do at least know that it’s in Belgium. It looks a bit like Prague with a picture postcard prettiness and historical treasures.
The two are holed up in the city after a hit job went wrong. They’re like The Odd Couple with guns and swearing or the philosophising assassins in Pulp Fiction transferred to a more scenic location.
Ken (Brendan Gleeson) takes this tourist trail with enthusiasm while Ray (Colin Farrell) maintains throughout that “Bruge is a shithole”. He dismisses sight seeing as just going around looking at things and history as just stuff that has already happened.
The movie is sharply scripted and ably directed by Martin McDonagh who has made his name in theatre before this, his first full length feature. The story is highly contrived and is weighed down a bit by the honour among hoodlums subtext but the lines are good enough to enable you to suspend disbelief without too much hardship.
Ralph Fiennes as the bad mouthing boss ,Harry, is terrific. I loved the scene where he’s angrily smashing up a phone. His wife comes in and says “It’s an inanimate object!” to which he replies “You’re a fucking inanimate object!”.
Brendan Gleeson is the best reason for watching this, though. His is the most rounded character and he plays it with economy and panache. It’s never explained how someone so cultured and humane wound up as a hit man a but then again it’s only a movie and it doesn’t always do to ask such questions.
