In Bruges (2008)

This post is in strict dedication to a friend, namely Caleb Bowers. And it is because of him that I will take this opportunity to state the beauty of film is that it is technically one product but what makes it an active experience is that that one product can reach different people in so many varying ways.

I liked a lot of things about this film. So I will start there.

The premise: We have an aged hit man and a novice who are at impasses in their lives, they are frozen in time, as is the location they are sent to inhabit by their boss while awaiting their next assignment. So here we have characters, and even a space that must negotiate an identity crisis. This is an intriguing story.

The cinematography: Many of the chosen angles were intricate and reminded the viewer of our viewership. We were witnesses to this story, not participants, but that was still a role we had to fill and that role was given to us by the camera making us active in our watching.

The setting: In Bruges, presents a visually rich backdrop with cultural vibrancy that has fallen into history. Its certainly a crossroad of a location and strongly mirrors much of the inner conflict of the given characters. Leading to my next point...

The characters and the actors portraying them are the strongest aspect of the film. Colin Farrell plays his part with great empathy. His whole character embodies youth and the struggles of the innocent, or at very least those perceived to be so. Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes play the men on the other side, they have moved on from youth and have found survival in their own moral systems. Which ironically bring their deaths as well.

I also appreciated many of the themes touched on throughout: human intimacy, perception, morality, repentance...all strong motivations to tell a story.

This whole thing comes with a big caveat, and my most humble apologies to Mr. Bowers. I did not like the humor...I only found a few parts actually funny, but for the most part I felt it was...well...stupid... and formulaic. Jokes about midget suicide and fat people just aren't really my style and you can't really claim it's dry or dark humor. Those styles take things you wouldn't have found funny otherwise and surprise you with their humor. Yet as I already said it was formulaic so....we weren't surprised. Literally, a character would say something and then you would wait ten minutes and it would come up again later without fail. Repetition is a great weapon of humor. However when over used it can also be it's downfall especially when it is an attempt at being dry. Also expletives become tiresome, as does watching bored people for two hours.

Overall: There are many things I liked about this film, but it lost me at the jokes, and some what in the pacing. HOWEVER, the whole point of the blog is exploration of opinions! I can appreciate that to someone  else this may resonate better than it did with me. In fact I know it does. So give it a watch, perhaps you have a different sense of humor than I do.