In Bruges **1/2

2008 Seen on DVD (107 mins)
Written and Directed by Martin McDonagh
With Colin Farrell, Ralph Fiennes, Brendan Gleeson, Clemency Poesy

This film made in Belgium is about two assassins, Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson), who are on the run after a botched job. They are sent to Bruges to lie low for a while. They are a sort of odd couple in that Ken is older and experienced and Ray is impulsive and almost childlike. Ken wants to see the sights of the town, an old medieval town with lots of period architecture, and Ray is bored and uninterested in it and just wants to get out. The shots of the town, by the way are simply beautiful. It looks like a painting.

As the plot moves on, the audience learns that an accident is the reason that the job was botched and Ray is the one who caused it. He is a wreck of a man because he feels something for the victim, something an assassin is not supposed to feel, even if the victim was an innocent bystander. It soon becomes clear that they are sent to Bruges not to lie low, but because the boss, Harry (Fiennes) wants to get rid of Ray - Nothing personal. And that's all I'll write about the plot because I probably already spoiled a bit of it.

There has been a lot of acclaim for Farrells' acting and I would agree, but there is something odd about his character. Maybe that oddness is waht people liked about his portrayal. Ray is of course a young, loudmouth gangster who has no interest in the beautiful and idyllic Bruges. But he's also nervous and neurotic - almost childlike. He has nervous giggles, and he puts his hand to the mouth as if he were biting his nails. It makes me wonder if he's that way because of the tragedy or because his character is that way anyway. It also shows contrast to his older more subdued partner Ken, who eventually takes a kind of fatherly role toward him and sees hope and a future for Ray.

Overall, this is a funny amusing film, with lots of nice views of Bruges. It's dark and has a bloody ending. Some people say that it is too dark, but for me, an old punk rocker, I have no problem with the darkness. I even embrace it.

Frozen River ***

2008 - Seen in Theater
Written and directed by Courtney Hunt
With Melissa Leo, Misty Upham, Charlei McDermott, Michael O'Keefe and Mark Boone Jr.

The working poor - When your American dream is simply to own a larger double wide trailer home to replace your smaller beat-up trailer home. This dream is the driving force of the narrative. This film is about a single working poor mother and her desperate attempts to scratch out a living. She resorts to some questionable moral activities to make that living. She recruits the help of a young Native American woman with a sordid past and experience to smuggle illegal immigrants into the country. To do this smuggling, they must drive across the frozen St Lawrence River, with the danger of falling through the ice always imminent.

One interesting aspect of the film is the people who they are smuggling across. Ray, the lead character of the film, discovers that the people who she is smuggling are indebted to the smugglers, who appear to be Russain mafia, who pay for their passage. It's not clear what will happen, but it certainly can be assumed that they will be serving their debts in some way Ray and her companion don't want to consider. One group is a group of young Asian women, who will certainly be used as sex slaves. But Ray and her partner are only concerned with their own small part in all this and generally don't worry about what will happen, though you can see by their expressions that it feels a little unsavory to them.

Ray is a woman who the audience roots for, but as described above, her moral compass is not always set on the straight and narrow. Her prejudice shows when she tries to smuggle across a Pakistan couple and she throws their bag out thinking that it is a terrorist bomb. It ends up being the couple's baby. She is a protagonist who is human.

The movie is bleak, but I find a glimmer of hope. While Ray does go to jail, other characters are taught a lesson and with the money she earns she gets her trailer. She has forged some friendships and has constructed a small family of outcasts which will provide for a slightly rosier future.