Sundance. In Bruges.

"Something strange is in the air at Park City, Utah, where the prestigious Sundance Film Festival opens tonight," writes Andrew Gumbel in the Independent. "People are talking about a golden year for British film - the most extraordinary flowering of our filmmaking talent for years." And at the top of his list of "The magnificent 23: British films showing at the Sundance Festival" is, naturally, the festival opener, Martin McDonagh's In Bruges.

For the New York Sun, S James Snyder talks with McDonagh, who "adamantly maintains that regardless of how mainstreams audiences react to In Bruges there are a handful of moments he deems perfect - scenes that have made the adventure worthwhile." There's one in an art gallery. "And then there's the scene on the bridge, where Brendan [Gleeson] and Colin [Farrell] talk about heaven and hell, and then go on to talk about hitting that guy at the restaurant in the face with a bottle - that's the kind of moment I always go for, something that's really funny but in just two lines it becomes really sad and kind of distressing in a way."

In the Los Angeles Times, Mark Olsen profiles Farrell: "In both In Bruges and Cassandra's Dream, Farrell plays men of simple tastes who are thrust into situations far beyond their abilities to cope.... Whereas Farrell's star rose based largely on his winning smile, bright eyes and healthy head of hair, both of these recent roles find him exploring aspects of tender uncertainty and emotional fragility that will likely surprise audiences looking for a flashy, flippant movie-star turn."

Earlier: Sylviane Gold profiles McDonagh for the New York Times.

Updates, 1/18: Besides David D'Arcy's take in his first dispatch from Park City, he's written another review for Screen Daily: "McDonagh so far shows better instincts for directing actors than for the camera. Gleeson is tender as a culture-loving killer with a paternal duty. Farrell is true to type as he curses beautiful Bruges ('a boring shit-hole') and mocks ubiquitous American tourists, flooring one, who turns out to be Canadian, for objecting to cigarette smoke - 'that's for John Lennon.' [Jordan Prentice] is hilarious, cock-sure in a drug stupor, ringed by whores, as he predicts a global race war."

"Closer to pics like The Hit and Miller's Crossing than to any of McDonagh's bristling, funny plays, this half-comic, half-serious account of two Irish hitmen who are sent to the titular Belgian burg to cool their heels after a job is moderately fair as a nutty character study, but overly far-fetched once the action kicks in," writes Robert Koehler in Variety.

"In Bruges is a comedy with a heavy heart, and frankly, I didn't really go for the jokes or the emotional pull," writes the AV Club's Noel Murray.

"Martin McDonagh's script moves in unexpected directions - and, more importantly, in unexpected directions which are the kind of unexpected that you do not actually expect," writes James Rocchi at Cinematical. "In Bruges, with two killers exiled to Brussels after a badly botched London hit until the heat comes off, turns into something different from the standard-issue post-Tarantino film; it becomes the post-post Tarantino film, one where the talk talk bang bang is actually, just as it was in Reservoir Dogs and Pulp Fiction, about something."

"As bright and fully considered as a good play (no surprise) with affecting portions of heart, compassion and symmetry," writes Jeffrey Wells. "And laughs - it's a very funny piece."

"The Bagger is no critic - though he had a nice dinner with one earlier in the evening - but In Bruges had the stuff the Bagger goes to movies for: Some laughs, a good story and characters that will stay with him for a while."

"[F]or all its very snappy dialogue and daringly crass humor, In Bruges aims to be about, in one character's words, 'guilt and sins and hell and all that,'" writes Premiere's Glenn Kenny. "Good for [McDanagh] for going big. It makes In Bruges a fairly auspicious kickoff for the festival."

"In the long history of British (or, technically, transplanted Irish) gangsters on film, Ray, Ken and Harry evoke neither the cool of the stylized nor the sympathy of the grittily naturalistic," writes Alison Willmore at the IFC Blog. "Neither amoral fun nor plausible subjects for compassion, they're just, like the film, curiosities."

Update, 1/19: Online viewing tip. Variety's Anne Thompson talks with Farrell, Gleeson and McDonagh.

Update, 1/20: James Rocchi talks with McDanagh for Cinematical.

Update, 1/21: "Colin Farrell is the most underrated, overhated actor of the the past few years," argues Jesse Hawthorne Ficks at Pixel Vision. "[W]atch In Bruges and his pitch-perfect performance in Woody Allen's misunderstood masterpiece Cassandra's Dream, and you too will become a believer."

Update, 1/24: "I had the odd sensation of really enjoying the caustic thrill ride of In Bruges the whole way, and then coming out into the frozen night feeling a little unsure about it," writes Salon's Andrew O'Hehir. "Its mixture of tenderness and brutality is deliberately awkward, but something about the blend didn't quite work for me in the final scenes, when McDonagh allows himself to be dragged into action-movie cliché."

Posted by dwhudson at January 17, 2008 6:30 AM