In Bruges is a baffler of a movie. How did entertainment manage to encompass something on one hand crazy and silly, and on the other hand cruel. But entertaining the film is; and this in spite of the fact that it is truly and utterly about nothing. The delights come in the form of small and well crafted episodes, expresso shots of empty calories which are highly satisfying, if only for that exact moment. That and the strong trio of performances from Colin Farrel, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fiennes. All three of them mug for the camera in their own way which is funny and sad and unflattering all simultaneously. Fiennes in his Looney Tunes way, Gleeson in his sad sack, yet reliable way, but the star of the show is the petty, stupid, and ‘in-the-moment’ selfishness of Colin Farrell. Certainly he gives one of his finest performances to date. His constant whining at his lot in life at being stuck in Bruges is reminiscent of Clerk’s aimless and ineffectual Dante Hicks refrain of “I’m not even supposed to be here today” which despite all odds, gets funnier with each repetition.

The film ambles along, not particularly in a hurry to get anywhere, because the film really has nowhere to go. There is not much of a plot to speak of, merely two hitmen in a holding pattern in a quaint little Belgium tourist-town waiting for judgment or reassignment from their boss/benefactor. Gleeson goes sightseeing, Farrell picks up a hot blonde on a movie set and somehow befriends one of the actors (Jordan Prentice here as the doppleganger of Peter Dinklage’s ‘token dream-sequence dwarf’ from Tom DiCillo’s Living in Oblivion), despite continually insulting him. Amusingly, the film-being-made is at one point remarked to be somewhat of a remake of Don’t Look Now.

All of the relationships in the film are oil-in-water to the point of which the only discernible thing the film has to say (besides the obvious - “shooting innocent children is unforgivable”) is that nobody has a good time in a tourist trap. The film likes its comedy as black as pitch considering that it tries to mix kid-shooting, extremely politically incorrect humour and overall cruelty. And it honest-to-god wants to you like these characters. Going back to Colin Farrell for a moment, he certainly goes as far as he can to doing so, yet you can only like him in a somewhat condescending sort of way, because really he is coasting on immaturity, casual stupidity and charm (more than one would-be girlfriend is suckered in by those qualities, as the audience will likely be here, although afterwards, there is nothing really to hold onto). Undoubtedly a movie star, he plays the Irish equivalent of any number of Adam Sandler’s man-children, particularly so in a spontaneous argument with a Canadian tourist in a fancy restaurant. It’s all petty outburst and overreaction. Of course some of the driving nature behind this character is supposed to be guilt on his accidental murder of a boy. Yet the rest of the pictures silliness doesn’t really support the melancholic suicide angle very well.

I don’t know what this in particular says about me, but I found myself laughing at all the insensitivity and overall unpredictable nature of many of the plot threads. It may be ill conceived, but I admittedly enjoyed the brashness, the going nowhere fast nature, and the neanderthal gallery of supporting misfits (in particular the constant aside on ‘alcoves’ with the local arms merchant) and the fact that anyone even attempted to mash such un-mashable tones together - here a multi-award winning playwright Martin McDonagh making his film debut - endeared me to the picture. The strange tone, occasional pop-culture riffing, oddball characters and overall wait-room setting puts In Bruges somewhere between The Big Lebowski and Reservoir Dogs, although the film doesn’t quite make it to the quality (and likely re-watchable level) of either of those films. It is completely and utterly forgettable picture with some entertaining performances and off-flavoured jokes. That still makes it miles above almost everything else plopped into the multiplex this time of year.