In Bruges

by Pa Rock
Film Critic

I caught this much ballyhooed independent film on cable last night and was quickly captivated. In Bruges is the story of two hit men on the lam due to a very botched crime, and the numerous intersecting lives and stories that wash through their exile. It is apparent from early on that this story will end tragically, yet there are many laughs en route to the bloody ending.

The hit men of In Bruges are Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson). They are in the employ of the mysterious Harry (Ralph Fiennes). As the story begins, Ray is in a church confessional telling the priest that he murdered someone for money. "You murdered a man for money?" the priest asks. "Who, Ray?" The reply: "You, Father." Ray begins shooting the priest through the confessional wall, but the stout Catholic cleric doesn't die easily. He gets up and walks away. Ray comes up behind him shooting some more, eventually bringing the priest down. When the priest falls and dies, a young boy is revealed lying in a pool of blood on the floor. He has also been killed by Ray.

That was Ray's first hit, and it went badly awry. Harry sends Ray and Ken, the experienced hit man, to the medieval city of Bruges, Belgium, to hide out. From there is gets funny, and complicated, and more deadly.

Fifteen or twenty minutes into this film I began to have a sense of deja vu. In Bruges has a very similar feel to the 1996 classic, 2 Days in the Valley, which was also a tale about a botched murder with several intersecting lives swirling through the resultant mayhem. Both were delightful on one level and absorbing on another.

I recommend In Bruges highly. And if it leaves you wanting more, rent a copy of 2 Days in the Valley. It will be an evening well spent!

The Reader

by Pa Rock
Film Critic

I am old enough to have seen some amazing movies on the big screen. Dr. Zhivago, The Graduate, and Cabaret leap to mind. Each of those delivered sucker punches to the gut that left me struggling to focus on the "real world" upon exiting the theater. This afternoon I saw The Reader, a darkly moving cinematic event under the direction of Stephen Daldry. The reviews let me know that I would enjoy (if that is the right word) The Reader a great deal, but I had no idea the extent to which I would be drawn into the experience and come away with concern and genuine feelings for the characters who lived out this tale.

The story focuses on a German lawyer who is looking back on his life and trying to understand the aloofness that he exhibits toward others, particularly his grown daughter. He thinks back to his first love, a strongly sexual affair that he had with a trolley-matron who was in her mid-thirties. He was an inexperienced lad of fifteen when they first met, but by the time she disappears from his life three months later he has become a seasoned lover. A central part of their love-making is her desire for him to read to her.

While it is often steamy, The Reader, is certainly no skin flick. It encompasses the horrors of the holocaust, the boundaries of love, and the relevance of ethics in a complicated world.

If you want more than that, go see the movie.

The ads, posters, and even the marquee credit Kate Winslet and Ralph Fiennes as being the stars of this movie. Perhaps, but that is with Fiennes doing so to a much lesser degree than Winslet. The film belongs to Kate Winslet: beginning, middle, and end. She is astounding in what truly is the role of a lifetime. Fiennes is good, very good, but while he necessarily plays second fiddle to Winslet, he is also seriously out-acted by newcomer David Kross who plays Finnes's character as a young man. The 18-year-old Kross and the 33-year-old Winslet drive themselves seamlessly through bouts of sexual passion, anger, despair, and renewal.

The Reader is an emotionally draining experience, but it is also very damned good!