Review of In Bruges (2008) by Devin M — 06 Jul 2016

Fantastic dark comedy about two hit men who must flee to the Belgian city of Bruges and deal with the fallout from a botched job.

Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell brilliantly portray two men who become quite close despite the fact that they are, in a sense, each other's foil. The absolute greatest quality of this movie is its masterful mixture of dark and deep seriousness with thought-provoking, witty humor. Combining real and sincere meaning with lightheartedness is not easy to pull off, but by centering the plot around some profound ideas, the movie becomes a powerful synthesis of these opposing concepts.

The film is also quite poetic and thematic without being pretentious or convoluted. The humor does not distract from the serious aspects of the movie, and it does not merely serve as comic relief. Rather, it cleverly focuses the audience's attention on the main messages of the movie. The plot itself is interesting enough for a great movie. Although it gets just a bit improbable in the end, the story is interesting and smart enough to make up for this slight stretch of reality.

Overall, the wonderful performances by Gleeson and Farrell, the engrossing story, and witty dark humor made this one of those great movies that left me breathless at the end--both because I was deeply captivated and because I had laughed so much.