Battered in Bruges

Over the weekend, I had the chance to see last year's movie In Bruges, starring Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, and Ralph Fiennes. If you caught the trailer for this movie, you might be inclined to think it an action-comedy. But don't be fooled. About 90% of the laughs in the movie are in that trailer.

Not that that's automatically a bad thing. It turns out this movie is a black comedy, heavy on the darkness. Actually, some might call it a dramedy (or a coma... whatever you stupidly call one of them hybrids). It certainly has some very dark subject matter at the heart of it.

The story is of two hitmen who, after a job goes bad, are ordered to a quiet town in Belgium to await further instructions. One likes the medieval-type architecture and sight-seeing, the other thinks he's landed in the worst place on Earth. Hilarity doesn't exactly ensue, but some amusement (laced with moments of drama) do.

But I was left feeling like the movie tried a little too hard to ride those lines. One or two jokes were laugh-out-loud funny. Likewise, one or two moments of drama were very moving. But the bulk of it all was in this strange limbo between the two.

The three main actors are all very good in the film (though Ralph Fiennes really only appears in the back half), but they still can't keep the pace from dragging at times. Perhaps it's a matter of incorrect expectations, but I only rate the movie a C+. I wouldn't really recommend it.