David Farnor | On 01, Dec 2017

Director: Martin McDonagh
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes
Certificate: 18

After the deliciously dark short Six Shooter, director Martin McDonagh teamed up with Brendan Gleeson again for this delightfully warped thriller. It’s not hard to see why: if Gleeson’s gruff delivery is superbly downbeat, his face is a work of art. Grimacing and snorting with derision, his imposing figure ambles through McDonagh’s depressing, warped world with the world visibly on his shoulders.

Joining him is Colin Farrell. Reminding us all why he’s such a brilliant actor, he plays Ray, colleague of fellow hitman, Ken (Gleeson). They’ve been told to go to Bruges. Where’s that? Belgium, apparently. Why would anyone want to go there? Let’s asks Harry (Fiennes), their hitman boss. Out Ben Kingsley-ing Sir Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast, he lists the canals, cobbled streets, old buildings… “The whole place is a fairy tale,” he snarls, with a lot more swearing.

Ray sees things differently. After accidentally shooting an innocent person on a job, he and Ken have been exiled to Bruges to lay low for a bit, do some sightseeing and stay out of trouble. Ken might like the culture, climbing the towers, eating in the restaurants, but Ray doesn’t. He complains and moans while smoking his life away, before erupting into politically incorrect outbursts that expose his bigoted world views.

Mooching around the winding back streets and angering the tourists, the two guns for hire bicker like children. Sparking off each other with electric timing, their dialogue is fiercely funny. It might seem like Tarantino-lite, but McDonagh injects his own character into proceedings: bringing enough tension to cobblestones to rival Coronation Street or Don’t Look Now, his camera eerily drifts over the foggy waters, dodging bullets and capturing tears with an eye for the aesthetic and a surprising ear for the profound.

When Harry enters the scene, the pace escalates into bloody violence. Storming round Belgium with a grudge and a gun, he wreaks vengeance with a sense of justice – and little other sense in his head. Farrell, on the other hand, manages to make his guilt-wracked assassin at once loathsome and vulnerable, while Gleeson finds humanity and maturity through his wearied existence. Thanks to its stellar cast and sharp script, McDonagh’s vibrant, murky world diverts throughout, even when it takes time out to wallow in philosophy and dabble with horse tranquilisers. This is brilliantly twisted entertainment of the highest order.

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