If made well, a dark comedy can be very enjoyable for an
audience watching it in good humour. It isn’t good enough to have an audience
that will tolerate the film making fun of usually serious topics, the film has
to hold its own when bringing out the humour in grave situations in a
respectable manner. Death, rape, war and drugs are usually selected as the
subjects of dark comedies which require a certain level of respect when making
fun of these topics so it is not misconstrued as being disrespectful.
Ray is a rookie Irish hitman who messes up on his first
assignment. During the course of eliminating his target, a priest, Ray
accidentally kills a young boy in a church in London. Under strict instructions
from his boss Harry, Ray and his handler Ken go to live in a hotel in Bruges to
hideout until given further instructions. While Ken is excited to sightsee
Bruges’ historical brilliance, Ray couldn’t care less for its heritage. He is
also guilt-stricken from having taken the life of a young boy and finds it
difficult to sit cooped up in his hotel room while waiting for Harry’s phone
call. Finally convincing Ken to visit a pub, Ray manages to meet a beautiful
Belgian girl named Chloe and an American dwarf actor named Jimmy on a film set.
Ray gets a date with Chloe and goes out while Ken stays back at the hotel to
await Harry’s instructions. When Harry finally connects with Ken, there is bad
news that may result in a few more lives being taken than Ken originally
anticipated.
In Bruges was written and directed by Martin McDonagh and was
released in 2008. The film stars Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Clemence Poesy
and Ralph Fiennes. The film is a dark comedy that plays around with the ideas
of life and death. The protagonist is a young hitman who has been exiled as a
way of keeping him out of trouble for a mistake he has made. There are many
jokes involving death, racism, dwarfs, war, nationalities and sexuality.
One of the constant fixes in the film is the protagonist
abusing Bruges and cursing the fact that he is forced to be in the city. He
goes as far as to compare Bruges with hell or purgatory where people would be
sent to live in the city for their sins, which is quite a similar situation to
his own since he has been exiled to the city for murdering a boy. The irony is
the protagonist constantly complaining about the city but the director showing
the audience the beauty of the city with plenty of shots of the city’s
architecture, art and culture. Certain scenes in the film are quite hilarious,
one in particular when two hitmen are about to have a shootout but cannot go
through with it because a pregnant lady in the room refuses to leave the
premises.
The dark tone of the film coupled with comedy makes it endearing
for the audience. The use of a score that was especially composed for the film
is something that isn’t seen too often in recent films and is a refreshing
change. The film score has one particular track which is repeated throughout
the film and becomes easily identifiable as it conveys the despair, guilt and
shame the characters in the film are experiencing. Since the characters are
Irish, they have a strong Irish accent which makes it difficult to follow the
dialogues but also adds to the comedic effect since it helps with the timing
and the delivery of the dialogues. The idea of introducing a film-within-the-film
was quite clever on the part of the director especially since the characters
speak about paying homage which is what is done in this film as well.
Overall, the film is quite funny once you get accustomed to
the accent and dialogue delivery. It has a slow pace so it may not be
everyone’s cup of tea. But it is excellently executed for a dark comedy.
