In Bruges

3/4 stars

In Bruges is both a comedy and a tragedy; it's like a Guy Ritchie movie if people actually cared about the consequences of their actions. The comedy is Ritchiesque, invoking the rapid and irreverent banter of his Lock, Stock... or Snatch. But it is effectively tempered by director Martin McDonagh's somber contemplation of the city itself, and its use as a symbol of guilt. Colin Farrell plays Ray, a hitman whose first job has gone horribly wrong. He is sent to Bruges (it's in Belgium) to lay low, and hates every minute of it. He can't wait to get back to the real world, and although we are assured by the camera (and some of the characters) that it is a breathtaking, fairytale place, Farrell can't stand it. The movie is a comedy because the characters must laugh as a respite from sorrow, and because life is random and unpredictable. It is a tragedy for the same reasons.

Although there is a somewhat ineffective romantic subplot with Clémence Poésy, the main performances are by Farrell, the sturdy Brendan Gleeson as his partner, and the dynamic Ralph Fiennes as the boss. Farrell has the hardest work; his character is an extrovert who races from comical mischief to suicidal grief several times in each scene. Gleeson's character is more reserved, less emotionally involved, but he too has baggage and heavy decisions to make. Even Fiennes, though his character is a problem for the movie, executes well what he has been given, revealing the humanity behind an outwardly menacing character.

The movie sees Ray find his way back to the desire to live. Bruges represents the purgatory he is trying to escape, between life and death. The symbolism is rich, but not overbearing, much of the Christian analogy delivered seamlessly through the culture of the city itself. Where the movie falls short is in the conception of two characters, the woman and the boss. Poésy does everything she's supposed to, but the affair just feels peripheral. The script (by McDonagh) is trying to tell us that her love could be redemption, and Ray certainly sees it as such; what we get instead is the impression that the lure of sex is enough to make Ray forget that he should be feeling guilty. Fiennes presents two problems. For one, the relationship between his character and Gleeson's is well developed, but distracts from the arc of the movie. The second is a plot twist which I won't detail, but which is intended to bring the movie neatly together, and instead turns it into a farce, and reduces everything that has come before.

McDonagh, in his first full length effort, has inspired ideas and proficient technique. He has the misfortune that his few mistakes are noticeable and frustrating, and disrupt the balance of a fine film. Nonetheless, what he gets right and what he draws out of his actors is worth seeing.