5 Comments Add your own

• 1. hokumboy  |  August 13th, 2008 at 9:41 am

  Will,
  You shoulda played the “F***ing Bruges” special feature from the disc.

  Excellent movie.
  And, to me, Bruges doesn’t look anything at all like the s***hole Collin Farrell considered it.

• 2. Brian M  |  August 13th, 2008 at 10:04 am

  Coincidentally, I just watched this last weekend. I LOVE this movie, and have made it one of those that I push on everyone I can. You are so right about the trailers. This is another case of failed marketing. The trailer for this film did absoutely nothing to interest me, and I might never have, but I finally saw it based on a glowing recommendation from a friend. I’m glad I did.

  The film is at times alternately laugh-out-loud funny and touchingly dramatic. Its success hinges greatly on the performance and chemistry of its two leads, Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, and both do phenomenal jobs (especially Farrell) helped by a witty script by Martin McDonagh. It had a very “Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead” feel to it.

  Colin Farrell’s role is an excellent departure from his usual characters, this one odd, hilarious, and almost child-like. I would love to see him (and Brendan Gleeson) score Oscar nominations for their performances in this film… but they won’t.

• 3. Jerry  |  August 13th, 2008 at 10:50 pm

  I saw this at a March screening in Chicago after recently seeing McDonagh’s Oscar winning short “Six Shooter” (which I thought was okay, but it fell apart for me in the last few minutes. The ending feels like a complete cop-out.)

  But back to “In Bruges”…

  I feel “In Bruges” is kind of a mixed bag. It’s also a great example of a problem I have in general with filmmaking today. Too many talented writers think they can also direct. The truth is they usually cannot.

  McDonagh is undeniably a gifted writer of dialogue. But maybe he’s too good. His scripts and films are full of witty, rapid fire discussions that are usually delivered between just two characters with minimal setups (more often than not just sitting or strolling along). It just screams live theatre to me.

  And I hate that. I hate when I feel like I’m watching a playwriting dialogue excercise that someone just put a camera on and filmed. They “tell” everything and “show” very little. Enough already. Show me more and let the audience discover the story rather than having it dictated to them. But with that said I still don’t hate this film.

  All of the actors, including the very important supporting roles, are so well played it really got me past the things I disliked. Gleeson is just perfect. The actors are able to take the rare quiet scene and make them their own. Like when tough talking Farrell starts to cry as he sleeps. Brilliant.

  Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying McDonagh is a hack. He’s not. I’m just saying he’s a gifted writer and only a so-so director. I sincerely hope he makes many more films, but he needs to develop his visual style to the same level as his writing.

  Or here’s an idea. Maybe he (and other great writers with merely adequate directing ability) could stop directing ‘just okay’ films and turn their great scripts over to a really talented Director and see what they can do with it?

  Too much to ask I suppose…

• 4. Jerry  |  August 13th, 2008 at 10:56 pm

  On a different note, I really like the filmed DVD review Will.

  You need to make some more!

• 5. Will Pfeifer  |  August 15th, 2008 at 3:56 pm

  I’ll be making a video review to go with every Movie Man column, so look for them on Tuesdays. I’ll be sure to post them here. Next week is for Guy Maddin’s very strange melodrama BRAND UPON THE BRAIN!, and is worth watching for the movie clips alone.

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