In Bruges
Dir. Martin McDonagh, feat Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clémence Poésy, Jordan Prentice, Zeljko Ivanek, Jérémie Rénier (TBA)
The world wasn’t exactly clamouring for another movie about sensitive hit men– not least one directed by a first-time feature filmmaker with a playwright’s tendency to favour words over action. But In Bruges achieves a zany momentum all the same, as any movie featuring a drugged-out dwarf, a cycloptic thief and an irritable Canadian sightseer might do.
All parties are united in Bruges, the medieval Belgian city-cum-tourist spot where two assassins (nervous rookie Colin Farrell and genial old-timer Brendan Gleeson) have been instructed to hide out. As these accidental tourists navigate a landscape of cathedrals and gastropubs, McDonagh immerses them in an interplay that’s half Beckett, half Mikey and Nicky.
The two men contemplate the morals of their profession, with Farrell grasping for redemption through a tentative romance with a local (Poésy). McDonagh’s dialogue is often bruisingly funny – particularly once hambone Ralph Fiennes makes his belated entrance – and his sense of the absurd never falters.
Read about Colin Farrell's career so far