Review of In Bruges (2008) by Harry W — 21 Apr 2014

Winning Colin Farrell a Golden Globe for Best Actor in a Musical or Comedy and a nomination for the Academy Award for Best Original Screenplay, In Bruges sounded like a worthwhile film to see.

In Bruges is a simple film. Its premise doesn't have too much to do or too many places to go, and so the focus of its importance rests on the skills of its screenplay and the talents of its cast.

For a black comedy, I didn't find In Bruges to be all that funny. I felt as if the film was a drama at heart and had a few comedic themes as well as some decent funny moments in the script, but as a whole there sikmply was not enough for me to really consider it to be a comedy as a whole. The balance between crime and black comedy isn't as successful as in director and writer Martin McDonagh's second feature Seven Psychopaths. While In Bruges may be a little bit more focused due to a smaller quantity of characters and features an even greater performance from Colin Farrell, it still doesn't find the same balance between comedy and crime that Seven Psychopaths was able to. I will admit that there were a few times when I laughed, but I hoped to laugh more and found that In Bruges simply wasn't as funny as it could have been.

And also, although this didn't really bother me all that much, In Bruges felt more like a play than a film. I can understand it because Martin McDonagh is a popular Irish playwright, but for In Bruges it doesn't necessarily feel like he went to the distances to actually go into writing something of a different style. Due to maintaining the importance of its script and characters within the simple confines of its few locations, In Bruges doesn't seem to feel too much like a film. It is definitely an entertaining feature, but it didn't feel like it broke the ground of constantly feeling like a play and instead maintained the same feeling from start to finish without many surprises despite a $15 million budget.

But remaining within its constraints, Martin McDonagh manages to allow the cinematography to be the best it can and keep the intense mood of situations captured well as it ties into the atmosphere, and it captures the nice sights of the scenery in In Bruges all very well. So his direction is stylish enough, but above all the best thing he contributes to In Bruges is its screenplay. Writing in a fairly simple concept which he takes full advantage of as director, Martin McDonagh creates an impressive screenplay for In Bruges to benefit from due to the fact that it pitches dialogue which feels real and creates strong characters who talk about concept that make their mark as interesting. The screenplay constantly keeps In Bruges interesting and looks into the thoughts and feelings of its characters easily and well enough. Like many of his play scripts, Martin McDonagh manages to put all the focus on In Bruges where it most importantly lies which is in the area of the characters and the interesting things they have to say and discuss to and with each other, and it allows In Bruges to naturally develop into a strong and compelling feature which gives the cast a lot of strong material to work with.

The musical score is pretty intense in In Bruges because it keeps the feeling of the scenes consistently rich with intensity. The musical score has a memorable beat to it and helps the atmosphere of the film develop well over the course of its 107 minute running time.

The main thing that I found to be entertaining about In Bruges was the performance of Colin Farrell. Despite being an actor that has worked consistently in Hollywood for many years and articulating his voice well enough to disguise the fact that he is Irish, he takes a step back for In Bruges and lets both his natural voice and his best dramatic acting talents flourish. In one of the best performances of his career, Colin Farrell lets out all of the dramatic skills within him for the sake of Martin McDonagh's film, and the result is very effective because the fierce emotional intensity in Colin Farrell's performance makes him a perfect lead. Me manages to tenaciously grip the dramatic and character focused elements of the character Ray and he sinks into the dramatic depth of the lead with natural ease. In Bruges features Colin Farrell's most honest performance in years and it is one not held back by the commercialisation of big budget filmmaking but instead keeps its focus on the small scale material of Martin McDonagh's Academy Award nominated screenplay, and it proves to be just the right kind of material for him to be working with.

Brendan Gleeson gives an effective supporting performance as well. Although he is known for a lot of performances which require a lot from him as a character actor, In Bruges simply demands his talents as a good actor which he doesn't fail to use. His tense and sharp line delivery in In Bruges becomes the source of an admirable performance and a strong chemistry which he shares with Colin Farrell. Brendan Gleeson consistently gives an effective supporting performance in In Bruges, and it helps the story move along well and develop naturally into being a compelling feature easily.

Ralph Fiennes supporting performance was a good one as well, and he manages to give a certain sophisticated rough edge to the dramatic nature of In Bruges which it serves to benefit from.

So while In Bruges isn't really as funny as you might hope and features a fairly basic story, it is well written and excellently acted well enough for it to be able to transcend most of the flaws that viewers may find in it, and the final product ends up being an intelligent and thrilling experience with Colin Farrell giving a powerful lead performance.