Moulin Bruges

Thanks to Quentin Tarantino’s Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, movie audiences have developed an ongoing love/hate relationship with trash talking, ill-paired philosophical hit-men. The latest such odd couple can be found in four-time Tony Award-nominated playwright’s Martin McDonagh’s full-length directorial feature debut, In Bruges, which begins a commercial run this week after debuting at this year’s Sundance Film Festival.

The odd couple in question consists of two Irishmen on the lam from a botched job in London and hiding out from their nasty boss (Ralph Fiennes) in the picturesque medieval Belgian city of Bruges, a four-hour stopover on many European Capital tours. Ken (Brendan Gleeson), the veteran of the pair, is one of those hulking men with a surprising soft spot for culture. Ray (Colin Farrell), his new partner-in-crime, is a young, foul-mouthed hothead who hates the titular city, even as it becomes a full fledged co-star. Ken and Ray are virtual strangers and the audience gets to know them as they get to know each other. All three actors are enormously entertaining, with Farrell’s eyebrows deserving of their own billing.

While the dialogue is far superior to Woody Allen’s recent feeble attempt at a “botched caper” film, Cassandra’s Dream (also starring Farrell), the script of In Bruges is just not Grade-A McDonagh. While it does have some of the pithy dark comic quality we’ve come to expect from the author of The Pillowman and The Lieutenant of Inishmore, there’s simply not enough to make the film completely satisfying. The symbolism is a bit ham-fisted as well. McDonagh’s palette moves from bright day to brooding night, relying heavily on Bruges’ Gothic architecture and such obvious imagery as Hieronymous Bosch’s famed “Garden of Earthly Delights,” leaving little question that it all will end badly for everyone. Although Six Shooter, his maiden film, won McDonagh an Oscar for Best Live-Action Short Film, In Bruges is more likely to win him a Travelogue honorable mention than any other awards this year.

(For TheaterMania’s photo feature on In Bruges‘ New York premiere, click here.)

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While it splashed largely and loudly across the big screen, Julie Taymor’s musical Across the Universe, now available on DVD, suffers from downsizing to fit television screens. Would that the lack of size were the film’s only problem! A jukebox musical of epic proportions featuring 33 of the Beatles’ best-known songs, the film often recalls the worst elements of Twyla Tharp’s Movin’ Out, while the special effects don’t astonish as simply recall such earlier films as Hair and Head.

The film tells a love story set across continents as Jude (Jim Sturgess) treks from the U.K. to the U.S. to find the American dad who left his mum when “he was just a bun.” Along the way he meets Lucy (Evan Rachel Wood) and her brother Max (Joe Anderson) — not to mention rock star Sadie (the wonderful Dana Fuchs) and a host of other New Yorkers. The group proceeds to experience everything that happens to America across the 1960s, from long hair and psychedelics to Viet Nam, via the words and music of John, Paul, George, and Ringo, and amidst a slew of cameos that feature everyone from Joe Cocker and Bono to Eddie Izzard, Dylan Baker, Bill Irwin, and James Urbaniak.

Fortunately, there are some outstanding individual numbers, including, “I Want You,” set in an Army recruiting center; “Happiness is a Warm Gun,” set in an Army hospital; and “Helter Skelter,” which juxtaposes a concert and a Vietnamese battlefield. But at two-hours plus, Taymor’s self-proclaimed “social statement” ultimately plays like an extra-special episode of NBC’s American Dreams, which covered much the same territory.

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Whether or not the Writer’s Guild Strike is settled by February 24th, the 80th annual Academy Awards will be presented in Los Angeles. This year’s field of nominees ignored such outstanding performances as Angelina Jolie (A Mighty Heart), Denzel Washington (American Gangster), and Atonement co-stars Keira Knightly and James McAvoy — along with that film’s director Joe Wright and Sweeney Todd helmer Tim Burton, while plenty of deserving folks did make the coveted cut.

Herewith are our predictions for the winners for the six major awards:

For Best Picture and Best Director, No Country for Old Men and helmers Joel and Ethan Coen will win the big prizes.

Daniel Day Lewis will add an Oscar to his Golden Globe and SAG Awards for There Will Be Blood.

Julie Christie, who won her first statuette for Darling in 1966, will take home her second golden man for her work as an Alzheimer’s patient in Away From Her.

Javier Bardem will get his much deserved Oscar as Best Supporting Actor for his villainous turn in No Country for Old Men.

Finally, no matter how much America loves Ruby Dee, it will be Cate Blanchett as Best Supporting Actress for her turn as Bob Dylan in I’m Not There.