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Sunday 12 October 2008

Blame Quentin

In Bruges
18, Nationwide

This film is about two Irish hitmen, Ken and Ray, who are forced to take a sort of minibreak in Bruges (hence the title; hence why this film isn’t, say, In Milton Keynes) on the instruction of their boss, Harry, who wants them to lie low for a while. The film is written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the celebrated playwright famed for The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman, but I don’t know. In Bruges has some cracking lines in it, a cracking performance from Brendan Gleeson as Ken, and some very funny, provocative jokes, but I still don’t know. Ken and Ray are utterly cavalier when it comes to violence, the kind who would blow your head off soon as look at you, and after No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood and Sweeney Todd, I wonder if I’m not a little fatigued by men who deal with the world in this way. Obviously, Quentin Tarantino is actually the one to blame, so if you see him, do me a favour and trip him up or put him in a half nelson or something. Whatever you do, don’t slice the skin off his nose as if you were peeling a peach, as that would be playing right into his hands.

Certainly, In Bruges opens prettily enough in Bruges (there’s a thing), which is beautiful, with its medieval buildings, cobbled streets, picturesque squares and canals. Much is made of the fairytale quality of the city — ‘It’s a fairy tale, innit?’ Harry keeps telling Ray and Ken over the phone — so perhaps ultimately splattering it with blood and profanities is McDonagh’s way of giving the finger to heritage movies, although why you would want to give the finger to heritage movies is anyone’s guess. I love heritage movies. Whatever, Ken (Gleeson), the older and wiser one, is totally enchanted, lapping up all the architecture and art while Ray (Colin Farrell), the volatile one who may also be slow-witted, is not enchanted by Bruges at all. ‘It’s a shithole!’ he declares. ‘If I grew up on a farm, and if I was retarded, Bruges might impress me,’ he later adds.

More articles from: Deborah Ross | this section

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