In Bruges (2008) wrong-footed a lot of people on its initial release.
Courtesy of a fairly misleading advertising campaign, most people expected a
bickering buddy action-comedy. And, in fairness to the advertising men, it does partly deliver that as
hitmen Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray (Colin Farrell) lie low in the Belgian
town of Bruges following a botched hit, and squabble over mundane things like
sightseeing. So far, so Tarantino-esque. However, what sets this apart from
that crowd is the unexpectedly metaphysical turn that proceedings take, as the
tragic reasons for being in Bruges become apparent and the city is revealed
as a kind of symbolic Purgatory for the duo. If that all sounds a bit heavy,
don’t worry, as it’s immensely entertaining in the process, with a racist dwarf
(Jordan Prentice) and a foul-mouthed criminal (Ralph Fiennes) turning up to assist Farrell
and Gleeson in delivering some viciously funny dialogue and un-PC belly-laughs, although you might find yourself wondering if you’re supposed to be laughing.
But the real testament to McDonagh’s writing is that the black comedy and
violence is balanced with something much more profound and affecting, which is
likely to catch you unawares on first viewing, not least in the terrific Raglan
Road scene, and in the delivery of the quite wonderful final line.
In his follow-up film, Seven Psychopaths (2012),
McDonagh pokes fun at Hollywood and its output with a story of a
struggling screenwriter, Marty (Colin Farrell), who inadvertently gets mixed up
with various criminals and psychopaths when his mate Billy (Sam Rockwell) and
partner Hans (Christopher Walken) steal the beloved dog of a menacing gangster
(Woody Harrelson). Can the film avoid falling into the very cliches that Marty
is trying to avoid with his film? Well, this is a film that wants to
have its cake and eat it. Wait. That makes no sense; those two things aren’t
mutually exclusive. In fact, one is pretty much dependent on the other, and an
entirely obvious thing to do. What else would you do with the cake? So it’s
probably more accurate to say this film wants to have its cake and do something
fun and clever with it, rather than just eat it. So, after high-fiving itself
on bucking cake-ownership-and-consumption convention, it tries to tart it up
into a sort of meta-cake, but the recipe doesn’t quite work out, and it ends up
resorting to eating it anyway, making self-effacing jokes about how it
conformed to the standard cake-eating scenario after all. But somehow the
laughter can’t quite hide a certain hollowness at not having not done something more
inventive with the cake recipe. (Note to Martin McDonagh – you can borrow all
that if you wish for your new script).
really sure where to take this cake analogy anymore, so maybe I’ll just go back
to normal reviewing, which is to say that it’s all very watchable and there’s
plenty of laughs to be had at the un-PC dialogue, mostly courtesy of Sam
Rockwell, who is fuckin’ brilliant in this. But after the wonderful In Bruges, I couldn’t help
feeling a bit disappointed that it all felt a bit insubstantial. Still, for some good
moments throughout, I’d give it Seven Psychopaths out of 10. Hope that joke
made you laugh, and let’s forget all that cake nonsense above, shall we? It
didn’t quite work the way it should have. If you’re reading this, Martin, I feel your writer’s pain.