4 ½ stars out of five. $10.00 ticket on a scale of $0 to $10.50

HAROLD PINTER MEETS JERRY SEINFELD


Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell

Almost everything about “In Bruges,” the first feature written and directed by playwright Martin McDonagh, is absurd, if not surreal. That approach to movies is littered with pitfalls, one of which is that the audience will not get the jokes. Fortunately McDonagh and a superb cast headed by Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell are more than up to the challenge. McDonagh’s screenplay is deliciously ironic.

The tale of two Irish hit men (Gleeson as Ken and Farrell as Ray) on the lam, awaiting orders from Harry (Ralph Fiennes) for two weeks as Christmas approaches in the medieval Belgian town of Bruges following an execution gone awry, benefits from sharply drawn characters, crisp dialogue, and absurd situations carried off with the flair of Harold Pinter at the top of his game.

The premise of this Focus Features release is not new. Both “Mr. & Mrs. Smith” (2005) and “Prizzi’s Honor” (1985) are based on one hit man (or woman) ordered to kill the other. But with “In Bruges,” McDonagh shoves the formula through the looking glass.

Farrell’s Ray, a likeable but whiny sociopath with a conscience, has badly screwed up his first assignment: blowing away a priest in the confessional. He got the priest (we know not why), but also killed a little boy (Theo Stevenson) awaiting his turn holding a scarp of paper as a reminder of his few minor misdeeds. Harry orders the pair to Bruges for two weeks to await his next order. Older, wiser Ken makes the best of it by sightseeing while Ray, haunted by the boy’s death, does little but complain and get into trouble. Pic’s first hour has elements of “Wating for Godot” as Ray chafes under Ken’s supervision, constantly asking when Harry’s orders will come and why did he send them to Bruges of all places, a question whose answer is one of the pic’s better jokes.

Harry’s appearance shifts the action in to high gear with an order to Ken to execute Ray. In a delightful twist, however, Ken foils Ray’s guilt-induced suicide.

The remainder of the 107 minute flick is a bloody unraveling according to the law of unintended consequences as proclaimed by Larry David and Jerry Seinfeld. Incensed at being defied, Harry heads to Bruges to execute both Ken and Ray, but instead of pulling the trigger at the first opportunity, he and Ray negotiate. Imagine that! The hunter and the hunted negotiating! It is absurd, but in its context, thanks in no small part to the skill of the actors, who play their scenes totally straight, auds willingly suspend disbelief. Ray’s escape is foiled by an obnoxious tourist (Zelijo Ivanek perfectly cast) who presses an assault charge stemming from a restaurant incident a few days earlier. Ivanek’s role gives pic’s running gag about ill-mannered American tourists a surprise payoff: He’s Canadian. In fact, pic’s only visible flaw (a minor one at that) lies in the setup of the “ugly American” joke in the first act, wherein the payoff is just a tad too predictable.

In another absurd twist, Marie (Thekla Reuten) the heavily pregnant proprietor of the hotel where Ken and Ray are lodged interrupts Harry’s pursuit of Ray, setting up yet another negotiation. She stares down the heavily armed Harry, calmly and flatly refusing to allow him to chase Ray to his room.

Fallout from a more elaborate sub-plot involving an attractive petty thief and drug dealer (Clémence Poésy) who moonlights as a script girl on an art-film shooting in Bruges, her partner Einik (Jérémie Renier), and Jimmy, a drugged-out dwarf American actor (Jordan Prentice) brings Ray face-to-face with Harry. Einik, one of many who have a beef with Ray, turns out to be on Harry’s payroll. Pic’s surprise denouement depends entirely its absurd premise that it is unforgivable among hit men to kill an innocent child. It explains why McDonagh penned Jimmy as a dwarf. It is a central plot element, not just an opening for McDonagh to heap ridicule on various forms of bigotry.

Tech credits excel. Straightforward lensing by Eigil Bryld compliments the acting aided by Jon Gregory’s economical editing. Carter Burwell’s music is neatly integrated into the action. The marvelously ancient architecture of Bruges is almost a character in the way that Vienna is in “The Third Man.” Pic offers a brief homage to Orson Welles as a clip from “Touch of Evil” appears on Ken’s TV screen. It may not be random that McDonagh chose to call Fiennes’ bad guy “Harry.” It is the name of Welles’ heavy in “The Third Man.”

“In Bruges” carries an “R” rating in the US for violence and drug use. Budget, which was not disclosed, may have been modest considering the impressive result. McDonagh has said that shooting was accomplished in only five weeks and two days.