“In Bruges” (pronounced ‘brooj’) is a highly unique and stylized black comedy that makes good on its ostensibly simple hitmen/boss narrative trope.
Colin Farrell has visible fun as Ray, a newbie assignment killer sent to Bruges, Belgium with his more experienced Irish compatriot Ken (Brenden Gleeson), to hide out after a London kill that went astray.
A Laurel and Hardy friendship develops between the two men as they sight-see Belgium’s best preserved medieval city while awaiting instructions from their excitable boss Harry (played with epithet-spewing glee by Ralph Fiennes).
The film shifts into a postmodern existential satire even as the body count goes up in a surprise-filled climax. Here is an unapologetically irreverent European crime thriller that makes subtle character development as effortless as Colin Ferrell’s upward bent eyebrows.
Don’t miss this understated gem. Dark laughs like these don’t grow on trees
Rated PG-13. 108 mins.
