In Bruges

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

An endlessly surprising, very dark, human comedy, with a plot that cannot be foreseen but only relished.

Chicago Reader J.R. Jones

The movie gradually deepens from odd-couple comedy into Catholic-themed drama, but it remains marvelously funny throughout. Instead of hitting the easy notes of black humor, McDonagh skillfully modulates between broad character laughs and the men's piercing anguish as the story nears its bloody conclusion.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Tasha Robinson

When it's funny, it's hilarious; when it's serious, it's powerful; and either way, it's an endless pleasant surprise.

USA Today Claudia Puig

Sharply written, superbly acted, funny and even occasionally touching.

Baltimore Sun Chris Kaltenbach

Tightly scripted and intricately plotted, the buddy film manages the neat two-step of being simultaneously profane and engaging.

Empire Damon Wise

With In Bruges, the British gangster movie gets a Croydon facelift. It may not be new, but it’s a wonderfully fresh take on a familiar genre: fucked-up, far-out and very, very funny.

Film Threat Jeremy Mathews

In a film full of great performances, Ralph Feinnes steals the show as Harry, the boss.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

The heroes are two hit men, and the tone is often absurdist. But the film is also very funny and surprisingly affecting.

Salon.com Andrew O'Hehir

Dark, hilarious and oddly moving.

Washington Post John Anderson

Those who know McDonagh's work know a vein of darkness will run deeply through the comedy. It has seldom been darker. Or funnier. He has made a hit-man movie in which you don't know what will happen and can't wait to find out. Every movie should be so cliched.

Rolling Stone Peter Travers

A haunting and hypnotic movie, just the thing to get lost in.

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

A perfectly titled and thoroughly engaging -- if at times gleefully violent -- black comedy.

Premiere Glenn Kenny

This finale, which piles one bloody absurd epiphany on top of another almost ad infinitum, is where McDonagh lays all his cards on the table -- and his characters are the ones who have to pay up.

Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips

After playing one too many sullen poseurs it’s clear Colin Farrell and Ralph Fiennes had a ball making an inky black comedy seething with grandiose invective.

San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle

Witty and lively, with a soul to it, as well.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

Little more than a shaggy-dog tale about two hit men killing time in the picturesque, medieval Belgian city of the title, goosed with crackling dialogue and generous dollops of gore.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

In Bruges, at its best, works like "Pulp Fiction" with Irish (and Belgian) accents, digressing into weird discourse and giving a bunch of actors the occasion to shine in small, peculiar roles.

Miami Herald Connie Ogle

Dry humor keeps In Bruges fresh and lively and makes it a whole lot of fun to watch.

Los Angeles Times Carina Chocano

A dark comedy with a melancholy streak and punchy sense of humor.

Slate Dana Stevens

A jolly mess of a movie. Overplotted, choppy, and contrived, it nonetheless has a curious vitality that makes you wonder where McDonagh will go next.

The Hollywood Reporter James Greenberg

Chock full of wonderful lines delivered by a splendid cast, the film toys with the conventions and mostly transcends the limitations.

Variety Robert Koehler

Closer to pics like “The Hit” and “Miller’s Crossing” than to 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.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

The acting is top-notch. Colin Farrell, who seems to be gravitating increasingly toward smaller films, effectively channels his manic energy. He and Brendan Gleeson display chemistry in the Odd Couple vein, occasionally giving rise to instances of humor. Ralph Fiennes plays one of the most twisted roles of his career.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

The setting is unique, the cast is terrific, the dialogue crackles and, if only there were a plot worth believing, In Bruges might have been a fine film.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

The banter between these unlikely partners seems inspired by Quentin Tarantino's ingeniously insipid dialogue, delivered with indelible deadpan sincerity by John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson in "Pulp Fiction." Neither the dialogue nor the characters are as interesting here.

Boston Globe Ty Burr

Fiennes's energy gets the film over the finish line.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

Mr. Gleeson, Mr. Farrell and especially the late-arriving and welcome Mr. Fiennes have great fun rummaging around inside Mr. McDonagh’s modest bag of tricks.

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

Neither star is sloppy, but both are loose and mellow -- a couple of pros who know they're the whole show.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

It's a showpiece for that Belgian city's medieval splendor. You may want to book vacation reservations upon leaving the theater, although the memory of this underwhelming movie may tarnish the sightseeing.

New York Magazine David Edelstein

For In Bruges to click, McDonagh needed either to get more real or more fake.

Village Voice Ella Taylor

Bruges may be the movie's rather too-long-running joke, but Farrell's shaggy brow is easily the most entertaining thing in Irish playwright Martin McDonagh's first foray into the crime caper.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The film's light comedy and dark morality make for an unsettling mix.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

As formulaic in its own way as anything mainstream Hollywood turns out, In Bruges is also a fish-out-of-water comedy.

The New Yorker Anthony Lane

No one wants a movie that tiptoes in step with political correctness, yet the willful opposite can be equally noxious, and, as In Bruges barges and blusters its way through dwarf jokes, child-abuse jokes, jokes about fat black women, and moldy old jokes about Americans, it runs the risk of pleasing itself more than its paying viewers.