In Bruges (2008) ***1/2
Like Martin McDonagh's most recent film, Three Billboards Outside Ebbing, Missouri (2017) (my review here), his 2008 feature debut, In Bruges, is a dramatic crime film with very dark humor, complex characters, and challenging subject matter (the most obvious of which I can't really mention without spoiling both a key plot point, as well as its tie-in to the climax).
Though I found In Bruges fairly contrived, it still has fantastic performances from its three leads and certainly poses some difficult questions of the audience. I like films that dance around grey areas, sociopolitically, rather than force-feeding its politics to the viewer, so for that this is a strong film. But I wasn't as enamored with it as I was with Three Billboards… and I'll need to revisit McDonagh's middle film, Seven Psychopaths (2013) (the first of his that I saw) before deciding if I like it more or less than this one—I seem to recall it being the most comedic (in a Guy Ritchie sort of way) and the least "deep."
Though I found In Bruges fairly contrived, it still has fantastic performances from its three leads and certainly poses some difficult questions of the audience. I like films that dance around grey areas, sociopolitically, rather than force-feeding its politics to the viewer, so for that this is a strong film. But I wasn't as enamored with it as I was with Three Billboards… and I'll need to revisit McDonagh's middle film, Seven Psychopaths (2013) (the first of his that I saw) before deciding if I like it more or less than this one—I seem to recall it being the most comedic (in a Guy Ritchie sort of way) and the least "deep."
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