Pictured: Mapplethorpe, Shades of 'Gray.'
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Brendan Gleeson is perhaps best known to movies audiences portraying 'Mad Eye' Moony in the Harry Potter series. He's one of those character actors that can save a bad movie and make a good one great. He's so good ( he's like an Irish Spencer Tracy ) , his great skill almost goes unnoticed. When he is given a starring role, as in the new black comedy In Bruges, the effect of his work is deeply satisfying. Matched up with co-star ( and marquee draw ) Colin Farrell, who is also gifted ( but in a more showy way ) , the duo enact a new variation on the buddy picture—one with a soul.
Gleeson and Farrell play Ken and Ray, two hitmen who have been ordered by their boss, Harry ( Ralph Fiennes ) , to lay low in Bruges, Belgium, until he phones up with orders for their next target. Ken, a quiet, cultured man, is immediately in his glory, taking in the picture postcard town; however, Ray, his much younger counterpoint who is new to the job, is bored stiff—until he spots a dwarf named Jimmy ( Jordan Prentice ) making a movie and one of the townspeople, Chloë ( Clémence Poésy ) , watching the filming. The two pursue their separate agendas until the call from the dreaded Harry comes.
Harry is as frightening and monstrous a figure as Don Logan, the lethal killer played by Ben Kingsley in Sexy Beast. Fiennes brings the same insane intensity to Harry that Kingsley brought to his role. ( The two could be brothers. ) Harry has the same barely contained, purposeful stride—like a walking shark—so dangerous that others instinctively know to get out of his way.
When Harry shows up, the picture shifts into high gear and changes from a black comedy into a treatise on honor and redemption accompanied by several violent set pieces. It's no surprise to find, given the movie's seesawing between poetic despair and brutal in-your-face violence, that it's been written and directed by Martin McDonagh, who has been dubbed the 'Irish Tarantino.' McDonagh won international acclaim for his plays The Beauty Queen of Leenane, The Pillowman and others, and he won an Oscar for his first film, a short entitled Six Shooter ( which also starred Gleeson ) . In Bruges is his feature debut. It's another one of those improbable but deftly entertaining hitmen pictures. Like The Matador, Grosse Point Blank and many others in the genre, the character of the assassin ( s ) —so hard to comprehend even in our narcissistic, mean-spirited culture—is examined, sometimes explained and, once in a while, redeemed.
Like the best of McDonagh's work, In Bruges has unforgettable moments of depth, lots of pitch-black humor and outrageous, unbelievable twists that are nevertheless quite entertaining. In addition, Gleeson and Farrell ( whose relationship is more father-son than buddy-buddy, to be honest ) jointly deliver an acting knockout.
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Black White + Gray: A Portrait of Sam Wagstaff and Robert Mapplethorpe ( pictured ) is a documentary that looks at Wagstaff, the rich art collector, and Mapplethorpe, the beautiful young photographer/lover whom Wagstaff helped elevate to international status as an artist. The film, beautifully shot, plays its Chicago premiere Feb. 8-14 at the Gene Siskel Film Center, 164 N. State.
James Crump's film is greatly aided by the in-depth observations of the one person who seemed to connect with both—musician/poet Patti Smith. Smith and Mapplethorpe were roommates and she followed the relationship of the couple throughout its trajectory. Though Mapplethorpe, with his still-controversial images of gay S&M practices, is the film's drawing card, it's really more a portrait of Wagstaff. But that's to the good as the elusive, rich Wagstaff—a man with an unerring artistic eye who turned his back on his family's WASP expectations—is, in many ways, a much more interesting subject than the career-driven Mapplethorpe ( even Smith honestly observes that Mapplethorpe's interests were mostly self-motivated ) .
The film, compellingly narrated by Joan Juliet Buck, is packed with vintage clips, dazzling photographs from Wagstaff's collection and the reminiscences of others privy to the relationship of the two men ( which comes across as both mentor/student and user/used in the retelling ) . Even more fascinating than the oft-told story of Wagstaff using his influence and money to make Mapplethorpe a star in the art world is the tantalizing idea of the couple purposely enacting a punk-era, gay version of the Alfred Stieglitz-Georgia O'Keeffe relationship. The film tries hard to diffuse this kind of mythmaking, but it stubbornly hovers over the movie anyway—and one suspects that these two brilliant manipulators wouldn't have it any other way. Let's hope this is the springboard for a biopic on the art world's dynamic gay duo; maybe by the time it gets made we'll even have some openly gay actors to play the parts. www.siskelfilmcenter.com
Film Notes:
—Bernard and Doris, a film focusing on the relationship of the world's richest woman ( tobacco heiress Doris Duke ) and her gay, alcoholic butler ( Bernard Lafferty ) , to whom she left the executor of her massive fortune, debuts Feb. 9 on HBO. Susan Sarandon plays Duke and Ralph Fiennes plays Bernard in the film that is directed by actor Bob Balaban, who is known for character parts in everything from Gosford Park to the Christopher Guest pictures. My Q&A with Balaban, a Chicago native, is available in the online edition of this week's issue.
—Chicago Filmmakers are hosting a special Valentine's Day edition of their Dyke Delicious series ( now in its fifth year ) . On Sat., Feb. 9, the event, titled A Valentine for Lesbians, starts with the usual pre-screening socializing but will get a twist with the addition of a romantic 'monkey-business' version of the Post Office game. An assortment of short films ( all with a love theme and curated by Sharon Zurek ) will follow the hi-jinks. Chicago Filmmakers ( 5243 N. Clark Street ) . Social hour at 7pm, screening at 8. Co-presented by Black Cat Productions. www.chicagofilmmakers.org
Check out my archived reviews at www.windycitytimes.com or www.knightatthemovies.com . Readers can leave feedback at the latter Web site, where there is also ordering information on my new book of collected film reviews, Knight at the Movies 2004-2006.
