In Bruges
18, Nationwide
This film is about two Irish hitmen, Ken and Ray, who are forced to take a sort of minibreak in Bruges (hence the title; hence why this film isn’t, say, In Milton Keynes) on the instruction of their boss, Harry, who wants them to lie low for a while. The film is written and directed by Martin McDonagh, the celebrated playwright famed for The Lieutenant of Inishmore and The Pillowman, but I don’t know. In Bruges has some cracking lines in it, a cracking performance from Brendan Gleeson as Ken, and some very funny, provocative jokes, but I still don’t know. Ken and Ray are utterly cavalier when it comes to violence, the kind who would blow your head off soon as look at you, and after No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood and Sweeney Todd, I wonder if I’m not a little fatigued by men who deal with the world in this way.
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