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IN BRUGES
Written & Directed by Martin McDonagh
Produced by Graham Broadbent & Pete Czernin
Director of Photography, Eigil Bryld
Edited by Jon Gregory
Music by Carter Burwell
Released by Focus Features
UK. 109 min. Rated R
With Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes, Clemence Poésy & Jérémie Rénier

I haven't used the word “funny” and Colin Farrell in the same sentence since Phone Booth, but in that case I was speaking in terms of so-freaking-bad-it’s-funny, instead of actual good movie funny. However, it’s time to shed the sarcasm and pair those two together once again. In Bruges is without a doubt a funny film and the Irish-accented Farrell has a handful of laugh out loud deliveries. However, the film's humor comes at the price of its own credibility and leads to its ultimate demise.

After a miserable and horrific failure on his first assigned job as a hit man, Ray (Colin Farrell) is sent off to hide in Bruges, Belgium, by orders of his bloodthirsty crime boss, Harry (Ray Fiennes). On assignment to keep a close eye on Ray is fellow hit man and father figure Ken (Brendan Gleeson), who sees the stay as a quaint vacation of sorts. Unable to appreciate the culture of the small European town like his colleague, Ray can't keep himself out of trouble – whether with women, drugs, tourists, or the law. Harry, feeling as if he is losing control of his minions in mainland Europe, sees no other solution than to fly from England to set both of them straight himself.

Writer/director Martin McDonagh has created emotional characters with dark pasts, specifically Ray, but he fails to develop them to the point where we actually buy into them. Ray's character has the skeleton of all skeletons in his closet (use your imagination and you could hardly imagine anything more likely to throw you on a lifelong guilt trip) and is supposedly plagued by the demons of his past, but he spends more time being funny than portraying this remorse or guilt – the emotions that would make the audience sympathize with him. By making Ray the comic relief as well as the protagonist, the script loses sight of the fact that he is responsible for the drama. His internal demons are put on the back burner in favor of cheap laughs that do work, but take away from the story's drive.

The film picks up when Harry arrives in Bruges with a chip on his shoulder, but by that point it is already too little, too late. The film is too bipolar and indecisive of whether it wants to be a comedy or a drama, and McDonagh fails to find a comfortable, hybridized medium that balances the two. Matt Alesevich
February 8, 2008