Common Sense Note
Parents need to know that this violent action dramedy is focused on the relationship between two professional assassins. While their conversations range from darkly comic to philosophical, the film's imagery is incessantly brutal and bloody. Weapons include guns, knives, and fists. A young boy is shot in the head, a man is stabbed, men punch and kick, there's an attempted suicide by gun, a man falls off a tower (graphic images of his crushed body), and heads and limbs are decimated. There's some sexual imagery -- particularly a brief roll on a bed that's interrupted by a jealous, gun-toting boyfriend -- as well as nonstop language (especially "f--k") and strong drug imagery.
Families can talk about the violence in the movie. Is it gratuitous? Why or why not? What are the consequences of the assassins' violent acts? What commentary is the movie making on the role of violence in today's culture? Families can also contrast Ray and Ken. What are their differences and similarities? What role do guilt and a sense of remorse play for both men?
Common Sense Review
Reviewed By: Cynthia Fuchs
The title of IN BRUGES is increasingly resonant, as two hitmen -- Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) -- are dispatched to Belgium following a botched job in London. Ray hates the place, so full of history, while Ken is moved by the art and architecture. Each man's reaction to Bruges parallels his moral journey. Overcome by the guilt over what went wrong during his first assignment, Ray alternately frets, contemplates suicide, and acts out aggressively, while Ken tries to soothe him with sightseeing trips and philosophical chats. Temporarily distracted by the beautiful Chloë (Clémence Poésy), Ray doesn't know that Ken has received grave instructions from their boss, Harry (Ralph Fiennes). As Ray contemplates suicide, Ken considers sacrificing himself to save Ray; both options are trumped, however, by Harry's observance of a strict moral code, which is underscored and undermined by the fact that he is, after all, a brutal gangster.
Darkly comic and dense with quick dialogue, Anglo-Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's first feature recalls films by Quentin Tarantino, in which desperate, violent characters discuss their life choices and relationships while simultaneously committing heinous acts. While the action is showy and the blood spurty, it's the evolving intimacy between Ken and Ray that is most compelling. Gleeson is especially moving as the aging Ken, who's realizing at long last the emotional and ethical costs of his career as he sees the effects on his newbie partner. Their conversations -- undertaken while walking through cobbled streets, ornate churches, and art museums -- suggest a thoughtful underside to all the nasty antics.
At the same time, the film delivers a now-familiar sort of garish brutality, fast-paced and sharply critical of the banalities that shape pop culture. The subplots are cacophonous and telling, one concerning a movie-within-the-movie inspired by Nicolas Roeg's Don't Look Now (another film about the confusing links between guilt and righteousness) and another involving a "midget" actor named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), whose frustrations with Ray's simplistic-seeming moral scheme serve as evocative comedy and complicate the movie's examination of genre, morality, and power hierarchies.
Other films about troubled hitmen include Pulp Fiction, Lock, Stock, and Two Smoking Barrels, Grosse Pointe Blank, The Limey, and John Woo's The Killer.
Rate It!
| Content | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| CS | adults | kids | ||
Sexual ContentBrief sex scene between Ray and Chloë (non-explicit passionate roll on bed); Chloë appears in bra and panties. References to hookers (a prostitute appears kissing a client); at a party, couples tongue kiss. Primary couple kisses passionately near the end. |
 |
|
||
ViolenceHitmen frequently discuss murder. Images (flashbacks as well as present time) show brutal, bloody, loud violence. Weapons include guns, knives, and fists; effects include the decimation of heads and limbs. A young boy is shot in the head (bloody image recurs, haunting the killer); a man falls off a tower, with explicit results. Discussion of suicide, and one man almost shoots himself in the mouth. Finale features repeated shooting, foot chase through city streets, lots of blood, and visible pain. |
 |
|
||
LanguageLots of language, including 100+ uses of "f--k" and several of "c--t," plus fewer uses of "s--t," (several with "hole," a couple with "horse"), "prick," "a--hole," "hell," and "p---y.". Derogatory terms like "poof" and "fag" are also used, and there's heated discussion of racism. |
|
|
||
Message |
|
|
||
Social BehaviorThe hitmen are charismatic, but also plainly troubled and confused. The employer is selfish and cruel, but espouses a strict moral code (when someone kills a child, that someone must die). Other characters sell drugs, live dissolute lifestyles, and more. |
 |
 |
||
Commercialism |
 |
|
||
Drug/Alcohol/TobaccoFrequent smoking and drinking (liquor, beer, wine), in café, pubs, and hotel room; several scenes show drug consumption (snorting cocaine); pills discovered in a hiding place; repeated references to drugs (cocaine, heroin). |
|
|
||
