Christmas Movie Reminder: ‘In Bruges’ Is a Christmas Movie
CultureCounterprogram this holiday with the first great film about Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell at a friendship crossroads.By Killian Faith-KellyDecember 16, 2024Save this storySaveSave this storySaveLet’s be honest about something here. “Christmas Movie” status is not exactly sacred. The genre is awash with phone-it-ins featuring, as the entire supposed appeal of the thing, an audience-drawing actor and a family-pleasing premise barely more detailed than: it’s Christmas. See Dear Santa (2024), see Last Christmas (2019), see Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (2014).Helpfully, there’s something we can do about this. Move (or, more accurately, widen) the goalposts ever so slightly, to include not just films whose primary subject is Christmas but also films that provably take place during the festive period, and a whole host of bangers become fair game for festive viewing.Die Hard is the obvious one here, given the amount of debate its potential Christmas Movie status has generated in recent years. But focus too closely on it, and we’re liable to overlook the best Christmas-set film of them all. A 2008 comedy-thriller that takes place in the lead-up to Christmas, in one of the most Christmassy-looking film locations you’re ever likely to see on screen. That 2008 comedy-thriller is of course In Bruges.The film that put Three Billboards and Banshees of Inisherin director Martin McDonagh on the map (cinematically speaking, anyway) follows two hitmen, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) as they hide out in the Belgian city of Bruges under the instruction of their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes), after Ray made a bit of a balls-up of their last job—the kind of balls-up where you shoot and kill a child.Older, more mature Ken is happy moseying around the beautiful streets of Bruges ("It's in Belgium," as Ray tells us as narrator) taking canal boat tours and going to see a bit of Jesus’s blood in an old church. Ray, on the other hand, doesn’t want to be there. He whinges, with all of that fantastic toddlerness that perhaps only Colin Farrell can summon, about how boring it all is, Belgium having little more to offer than “chocolates and child abuse” as far as he’s concerned.For a while, they float around in this purgatorial state and Ray’s boredom (or perhaps just innate rebelliousness) makes for plenty of mischief—his punching of an “American” tourist (who turns out to be Canadian) in the name of avenging John Lennon, his goading of a (this time genuinely) American family into chasing him around the square after he tells them they’re too overweight to climb the clock tower. And a lot of it is a lot more fun than the sort of mischief a hitman typically gets up to.Then things get darker. When Harry tells Ken the real purpose of their trip—a final holiday followed by a swift execution for Ray, to be carried about by Ken—the laughs fade to black, as Ken contends with whether or not he’s going to be able to kill a man whose extensive whining he has clearly hated tolerating, but who we suspect he might still consider, albeit reluctantly, a friend.Brendan Gleeson’s gruff stoicism is perfect in this moment. When he opts for the personal and professional sacrifice that he knows letting Ray escape will constitute, there’s no turmoil, no wrestle with any inner demon wrought on his face. There’s only a resolute acceptance of the consequences of what he’s decided was absolutely the right decision.Ralph Fiennes is also brilliant, fanatically and fantastically losing the rag as Harry while Gleeson’s Ken calmly informs him of his decision to let Ray go. (Harry’s implicit acceptance of Ken’s assertion that he’s a cunt, by insisting that Ken “retract that bit about my cunt fucking kids” but saying nothing about Ken’s description of Harry himself, is a hall-of-fame unity of comic writing and performance).The frantic finish this sets up—in which Harry wants to kill Ray, Ken wants to intercept Harry and warn Ray, and Ray, as always, just wants out of Bruges—is perfect. We get all of the shooting-shouting-chasing action, and wrapped inside it is a grossly violent sequence that’ll shock you with its emotion, while still managing to genuinely serve the action of the plot.In its final moments, as the snow falls around him, Farrell's Ray delivers the heaviest bit of dialogue of the whole film. And so is completed its masterful descent—from lightness and cheer at its outset to a rumination on the nature of death itself, by the end. Merry Christmas everyone! I'd take this over Hot Frosty any day.This story originally appeared in British GQ.
Let’s be honest about something here. “Christmas Movie” status is not exactly sacred. The genre is awash with phone-it-ins featuring, as the entire supposed appeal of the thing, an audience-drawing actor and a family-pleasing premise barely more detailed than: it’s Christmas. See Dear Santa (2024), see Last Christmas (2019), see Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever (2014).
Helpfully, there’s something we can do about this. Move (or, more accurately, widen) the goalposts ever so slightly, to include not just films whose primary subject is Christmas but also films that provably take place during the festive period, and a whole host of bangers become fair game for festive viewing.
Die Hard is the obvious one here, given the amount of debate its potential Christmas Movie status has generated in recent years. But focus too closely on it, and we’re liable to overlook the best Christmas-set film of them all. A 2008 comedy-thriller that takes place in the lead-up to Christmas, in one of the most Christmassy-looking film locations you’re ever likely to see on screen. That 2008 comedy-thriller is of course In Bruges.
The film that put Three Billboards and Banshees of Inisherin director Martin McDonagh on the map (cinematically speaking, anyway) follows two hitmen, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) as they hide out in the Belgian city of Bruges under the instruction of their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes), after Ray made a bit of a balls-up of their last job—the kind of balls-up where you shoot and kill a child.
Older, more mature Ken is happy moseying around the beautiful streets of Bruges ("It's in Belgium," as Ray tells us as narrator) taking canal boat tours and going to see a bit of Jesus’s blood in an old church. Ray, on the other hand, doesn’t want to be there. He whinges, with all of that fantastic toddlerness that perhaps only Colin Farrell can summon, about how boring it all is, Belgium having little more to offer than “chocolates and child abuse” as far as he’s concerned.
For a while, they float around in this purgatorial state and Ray’s boredom (or perhaps just innate rebelliousness) makes for plenty of mischief—his punching of an “American” tourist (who turns out to be Canadian) in the name of avenging John Lennon, his goading of a (this time genuinely) American family into chasing him around the square after he tells them they’re too overweight to climb the clock tower. And a lot of it is a lot more fun than the sort of mischief a hitman typically gets up to.
Then things get darker. When Harry tells Ken the real purpose of their trip—a final holiday followed by a swift execution for Ray, to be carried about by Ken—the laughs fade to black, as Ken contends with whether or not he’s going to be able to kill a man whose extensive whining he has clearly hated tolerating, but who we suspect he might still consider, albeit reluctantly, a friend.
Brendan Gleeson’s gruff stoicism is perfect in this moment. When he opts for the personal and professional sacrifice that he knows letting Ray escape will constitute, there’s no turmoil, no wrestle with any inner demon wrought on his face. There’s only a resolute acceptance of the consequences of what he’s decided was absolutely the right decision.
Ralph Fiennes is also brilliant, fanatically and fantastically losing the rag as Harry while Gleeson’s Ken calmly informs him of his decision to let Ray go. (Harry’s implicit acceptance of Ken’s assertion that he’s a cunt, by insisting that Ken “retract that bit about my cunt fucking kids” but saying nothing about Ken’s description of Harry himself, is a hall-of-fame unity of comic writing and performance).
The frantic finish this sets up—in which Harry wants to kill Ray, Ken wants to intercept Harry and warn Ray, and Ray, as always, just wants out of Bruges—is perfect. We get all of the shooting-shouting-chasing action, and wrapped inside it is a grossly violent sequence that’ll shock you with its emotion, while still managing to genuinely serve the action of the plot.
In its final moments, as the snow falls around him, Farrell's Ray delivers the heaviest bit of dialogue of the whole film. And so is completed its masterful descent—from lightness and cheer at its outset to a rumination on the nature of death itself, by the end. Merry Christmas everyone! I'd take this over Hot Frosty any day.
This story originally appeared in British GQ.
