"You're An Inanimate F*cking Object!"
I watched In Bruges (again) on an airplane. Here are some words.
You know the phrase “one for them, one for me”? Basically, it means that an artist will do something for the fans before creating something solely for themselves.
Most of these Aerial Shots are for me … and this one is no different.
After watching Cloud on the airplane coming back from Florida—yes, there were delays and yes, we sat on the tarmac for what seemed like decades—I threw on one of my favorites, In Bruges, just because.
An Ode To Colin Farrell, The Best Actor
Maybe the best scene in (the perfect) In Bruges begins with Brendan Gleeson’s Ken readying himself to gun down Colin Farrell’s Ray. He waddles up as the music crescendos and just as he steadies his pistol, Ray pulls out a gun and puts it to his own head.
I’ve written about Colin Farrell (see above) and Brendan Gleeson a handful of times over the years, but it’s time to discuss what makes this Martin McDonagh movie go from solid crime-thriller to bonafide classic.
It takes more than half the movie for Ralph Fiennes to show up, and when he does, everything changes. He’s terrifying1, immediately has a gravitational pull and is so goddamn funny in his fury. I mean, just watch this.
NATALIE
Harry.HARRY
What?NATALIE
It’s an inanimate fucking object.HARRY
You’re an inanimate fucking object!
Now, that’s screenwriting! And Fiennes plays it with so much internal fury that you immediately can gather where this is all going. A standoff is coming, and despite not seeing Fiennes’ Harry Waters for most of the movie, you’re immediately invested in where this is all going.
Just look at the screenshot at the top. Fiennes has this nasty smirk on his face throughout, just waiting for someone to test him. He’s almost excited for something to start up so he can get some of his anger out. And yet, it’s his “morals” that ultimately do him in, despite being more than misguided.
There’s a reason McDonagh brought in one of the big guns like Fiennes to spearhead the final act of In Bruges: The guy is a machine and an immediate must-watch no matter what he’s doing. He’s transcendent in The Grand Budapest Hotel, a similar third-act marvel in 28 Years Later and was so convincing as Nazi Amon Goeth in Schindler’s List that it’s almost a miracle that he wasn’t typecast solely as a ne’er-do-well.
So, this is a plea to watch In Bruges, a 2008 comedy that I keep coming back to, despite its pretty2 upsetting plot. Watching Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes go head-to-head for nearly two hours is worth the price of admission. And it also features one of the most hurtful (all-timer) Tottenham jokes.
Okay. That’s it for this week. We’ve got a new Aerial Shot Movie Club next week, featuring Antara Sinha and a lot of pirate talk. It’s all about Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest3. Watch it on Disney+, if you want, before the pod drops. You’ve probably seen it before. Hide the rum.
I mean … he is Voldemort.
*very
NOT Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of the Black Pearl, like I initially thought