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In Bruges

Director (and writer) Martin McDonagh

Starring Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes.



Two hitmen, old hand Ken (Gleeson) and beginner Ray (Farrell) are hiding out in Bruges after Ray's first job. This is to the delight of Ken, who's quite happy to trail around medieval architecture, but to the disgust of Ray who can barely bring himself to pronounce Bruges without the f'ing prefix...

Gleeson and Farrell are an inspired combination of actors to play the hitmen, one stoical the other bouncing off the walls due to circumstances that become more apparent as the film unfolds. The genius of this film is its mixture of hilariously tasteless dialogue with suddenly realised dark touches that bring you back down to earth with a bump - these are hitmen after all. As the story develops, Ray's bravado slips, and Farrell does his stuff with his naive boyish charm , this in turn gives Gleeson a nice turn in fatherly concern, but not without some dark surprises.

Another unlikely but sharp piece of casting is Ralph Fiennes as Harry the hitman's boss whose psycho tantrums and threatening delivery bring to mind Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast.

We laughed a lot all through, it's good to have decent black humour and as well rounded as this, it's a pleasure to see.