Ottowa Citizen Interview 25/01/08

Source: Ottowa Citizen

Dark thriller pushes unspoken film taboos

Katherine Monk, Canwest News Service

Published: Friday, January 25, 2008

PARK CITY, Utah - There's a great deal of meaning to be found in playing the proverbial "bad guy," according to Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson, the criminal duo at the heart of Martin McDonagh's Sundance launcher, In Bruges.

It goes beyond the cautionary tale, say the two Irishmen. "It's about holding up the mirror to society and seeing ourselves for what we really are," says Farrell, sitting in a tired-looking couch bookended by publicity posters for the dark thriller directed and written by the playwright-turned-director.

"We have such a great potential for both good and evil, and I think if you can open up a character so that people can see into the heart of what we are, and what we could be, I think there's a great social value to that," says Farrell.

A story of two hitmen who end up in a quaint Belgian town called Bruges after a botched murder, the somewhat controversial thriller goes beyond certain established genre boundaries. In addition to the requisite violence associated with the form, McDonagh pushes certain unspoken film taboos, such as striking a woman, killing children, and taking a somewhat tainted view of the church, including the murder of a priest.

McDonagh said that as an Irishman and a lapsed Catholic, God still exists in the frame, but there's a different dimension to the moral questions at the centre of the movie.

"I think I'm just one of those people who believes if you join the club that did horrendous things over the course of history, you're belonging to the wrong club. And the Catholic Church certainly hasn't been any stranger to scandals over the years," says McDonagh.

For Farrell and Gleeson, who have both played heavies before, the chance to really play with the moral palette of what could be considered stock characters was one of the big reasons they fell in love with the project.

The idea is to surrender to instinct, even if it's scary, say the dynamic screen duo, who manage to conjure an incredible amount of screen intimacy over the course of the drama.

Part of the chemistry is the simple fact that three of the key talents -- Farrell, Gleeson and McDonagh -- are all Irish.

Whether it's a function of latent Catholic guilt, or simply a matter of the journey they all took together, all three talents say the idea that all actions have consequences was something they were innately drawn to, not just as actors, but as human beings.