Another weekend, another long day at work, which results in a short film review. Only tonight’s special: Daylight Savings! I actually have one less hour tonight to do anything! Awesome!
What will make In Bruges work for you is in its humor. There’s a very heavy focus on dark comedy that serves as the top layer of its emotional underlying message and abrupt violence. A mish-mash of darkness, if you will, which will definitely leave some with a bit of a bad taste.
Take a friend of my friend, for example. Among the three critics I trust that make up the Sardonicast Podcast on Youtube, every one of them gave this an 8/10. It holds a 4.0/5 average rating on letterboxd. Said friend of a friend gave it a 4/10. While I have no definite answer as to why he chose to rate this so low, I believe it is because of the content matter, which holds a really vile, nasty bite to its humor (complete with racist blithering, lots of screaming vulgarity, and gory bits of action).
I’ve enjoyed dark comedies in the past, and I will likely enjoy them in the future. What matters most to me, however, is execution, and In Bruges… kind of misses the mark. Some quips were cute, though nothing ever did more than have me crack a smirk. Many of the actors were great in their roles, and to some extent they make this film what it is. But the writing was of a certain variety that just didn’t do it for me. To better highlight this, the first twenty minutes of this film were very boring to me. Once the internal conflict concerning Farrell’s character kicked in, then I started getting invested. I like the twisted story, just not the twisted humor.
Certainly memorable for the distinguishable comedic style and the happenings all within a certain realm of reality, In Bruges is something I would recommend only to those willing to go into it aware of what it provides. Some will not care for the offensive material provided, nor will they find a lot of happiness attached. Almost nihilist in nature, though some may argue otherwise. That’s the fun here: no one really knows anything.
Final Score: 6.5/10
The rating for all other films can be found at Letterboxd.
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Thank you for your time. Have a great day.
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