Not only have you refused to kill the boy, you even stopped the boy from killing himself, which would’ve solved my problem, which would’ve solved your problem, which sounds like it would’ve solved the boy’s problem.

I watched In Bruges last night, and I was caught completely off guard. I really didn’t know anything about the movie and I wasn’t holding out much hope for it. From the cover, and the bit I read from the back of the jacket, I figured I’d be in for another typical hit man on the run type story.

What I wasn’t expecting was a movie with three extremely interesting characters with excellent dialogue. Think Vincent and Jules from Pulp Fiction running around in a world created by Guy Ritchie (If you don’t know my taste in film, being compared to either Tarantino or Ritchie is a good thing, particularly the latter). Aside from not having any freeze-frames or intense music montages, it could have easily been another of Ritchie’s films. Watching two killers trying to appreciate art, Catholic relics, and racist dwarves in movies, all while spouting great lines that come at you out of nowhere, sets up an incongruous story that twists around in some very surprising ways.

It felt like an indie movie that was trying to not look indie (as opposed to a studio movie trying to look indie, a pet peeve of mine). The fact that this was only writer/director Martin McDonagh’s second feature, explains a lot. The movie had a raw feeling that made it all the more enjoyable.

Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson, and Colin Farrell (with a couple of exceptions of Farrell’s part) all played out their roles perfectly. The mix of conscience and quirkiness in each of the characters makes this movie a success.

I’ll definitely be watching this one again before it goes back to the video store. Who knows, it might end up on the ‘Buy List.’ I really liked it.