Andrea and I saw In Bruges yesterday and were impressed without being enraptured.

Pro: It’s a very smart film with outstanding performances from Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell. Writer-director Martin McDonagh has a great way of showing how normal conversations can break down when people are under extreme duress, sometimes with paradoxically hilarious results. “What’s a fifty-year old lollipop man doing knowing fooking karate?”

Con: On the other hand, it is one more violent underworld drama that for all its peculiarities, knotty plotting, and embedded surrealism, is still one more violent underworld drama. There have been a lot of these recently, and viewed as a crime drama, McDonagh doesn’t add anything to the basic principle that violent people have a tendency to solve their every problem with violence. I was also unimpressed by the magic dum-dum bullets that seemed to do whatever was necessary to advance the plot.

Overall: A film well worth seeing despite some glitches. I can’t guarantee you’ll like it, but I can guarantee that In Bruges contains some great scenes and lines of dialogue unlike anything you’ll see anywhere else. We’ll be looking out for anything McDonagh does in the future.

Tags: crime drama, in bruges, martin mcdonagh, surrealism