Bloody and brilliantly funny, playwright Martin McDonagh's directing debut brings a black Irish wit to an odd couple/hitmen-on-the-lam comedy. With Colin Farrell, Brendon Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes.
I hated history, didn't you? It's all just a load of stuff that's already happened.
Screened as part of NZIFF 2008
In Bruges 2008
Bloody and brilliantly funny, writer Martin McDonagh's directing debut brings a black Irish wit to a post Pulp Fiction genre: the odd couple/hitmen-on-the-lam redemption comedy. Gifted with dialogue any actor would kill for, Colin Farrell reveals canny comic skill and replenished charisma as the loose-cannon new boy, Ray. Brendan Gleeson as Ken, the cultured old pro is the perfect weary foil. After a messy hit in London they've been sent to the tranquil medieval town of Bruges to await further instructions from their control freak boss, Ralph Fiennes (also in excellent form). Ray is very bored. — BG
"The opening moments and slick snap of the dialogue lull you into believing that you're in for yet another standard-issue post-Tarantino film... But then Martin McDonagh's script moves in unexpected directions - and, more importantly, in unexpected directions which are the kind of unexpected that you do not actually expect... All the zip and pow and zesty vulgarity of the movie can't hide how smart and skillful and thoughtful it is... McDonagh's ear for elliptical, screwball conversation - hairs are split, semantics argued until points of contention get wielded like knives - is impressively, explosively funny." — James Rocchi, Cinematical
"McDonagh's plotting is fiendishly clever, his dialogue crashes in on us like a tide throwing nails ashore with each wave and his black humour is laced with serious moral issues. Farrell, his eyebrows constantly wrinkling like a pair of leeches limbering up for a fight, Gleeson, the ultimate principled hitman, and Fiennes, the family man as sadistic killer, have rarely been better." — Philip French, The Observer