Who's in It: Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Ralph Fiennes
The Basics: Two hit men, assigned by the Big Boss to hide out in Bruges (say it like "broozh"), Belgium, after a job, spend their time bickering, looking at medieval architecture, fighting with skinheads, falling in love with female drug dealers, karate-chopping dwarves and winding up at hooker-and-cocaine-fueled parties. At Christmas.
What's the Deal? It sounds too Tarantino-ish already, doesn't it? Well, it is, and it isn't. I mean, yes, it's got wacky hit men and wackier situations. And it's intentionally funny. But there's this unabashed sadness running all the way through it (because of some plot stuff I'm not going to give away here). And so even though it whips you back and forth between bizarre situations, viciously R-rated violence, shockingly mean-spirited and hilarious verbal fireworks, cliché B-movie action chase scenes and coked-up dwarves plotting race wars, somehow it all seems more meaningful than it probably is.
Who Can Relax Now: The pressure's off Farrell to be the Next Big Thing. They tried that with him, and it failed. You could blame stuff like S.W.A.T.. The sex tape didn't help. But now he's given a really interesting quiet performance in The New World and an anxious one in Cassandra's Dream and done his best, funniest, most movie-star-like work in this one. And he might just wind up becoming the kind of actor they expected him to be.
Who Needs to Do More Comedy: Fiennes. And Maid in Manhattan doesn't count. He's caustically funny as a psychotic, but psychotically honorable, boss with a love of the "fairy tale" quality of the Belgian city.
Who Might Not Like It: The Belgian tourism industry.