Took me a while to warm to In Bruges, but in the end I liked it a lot. As a story it's more or less completely nuts, and at times they appear to be making it up as they go along, but the script is sharp, it looks great - like a Belgian brown bar made into a film - and Gleeson and Farrell's performances carry the day, making the sketchiest and unlikeliest of plots - which this certainly is - into something quite resonant and even touching. It is, of course, completely unfair on poor little Bruges, but that's consistent with a film which is not exactly a monument to justice and fair play - Farrell in particular spreads his prejudices around pretty even-handedly. Warning: if you're sensitive to profanity, this movie is not for you - if they cut the F and C words (delivered with typically Irish brio), the film would probably only run to about twenty minutes. If you like this, try 'The Matador [2005]', which has a similar feel...
Friday, 31 October 2008
Violent, profane... excellent: In Bruges
Took me a while to warm to In Bruges, but in the end I liked it a lot. As a story it's more or less completely nuts, and at times they appear to be making it up as they go along, but the script is sharp, it looks great - like a Belgian brown bar made into a film - and Gleeson and Farrell's performances carry the day, making the sketchiest and unlikeliest of plots - which this certainly is - into something quite resonant and even touching. It is, of course, completely unfair on poor little Bruges, but that's consistent with a film which is not exactly a monument to justice and fair play - Farrell in particular spreads his prejudices around pretty even-handedly. Warning: if you're sensitive to profanity, this movie is not for you - if they cut the F and C words (delivered with typically Irish brio), the film would probably only run to about twenty minutes. If you like this, try 'The Matador [2005]', which has a similar feel...
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I watched it on 'the' plane and enjoyed it in typically drunken fashion. But weren't they over-egging the pud' somewhat with the Father Ted and Dougal shtick? I found it a bit off-putting.
ReplyDeletebtw, and not to be too picky here, but I don't think there's any such thing as a Belgian brown bar. Unless you just mean a bar which is brown and in Belgium.
ReplyDeleteI think a little Googling will confirm that 'brown bar' is a commonly accepted term for traditional Belgian and Dutch bars where everything from the beer to the walls is brown, either through design or through the happy accident of decades of tobacco smoke. I love 'em, personally...
ReplyDeleteHmmm, I always though the term brown bar related specifically to a hash bar but then again I never cheated by checking my intanet...
ReplyDeletepyramic