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Ric and I both agree that In Bruges is our favorite movie we've seen this year. I know it's only April, but I expect it will probably stay near the top as the months pass by. Staring Brendan Gleeson and Colin Farrell, the movie is about two hitmen who are sent to Bruges (in Belgium) to keep under wraps after a botched job.

Ray, the younger of the two, thinks Bruges is the most boring place he's ever been. He distracts himself by hitting on a local girl and trying to befriend a little person who is in town to film a movie. Ken, who is a bit of a mentor to Ray, loves the city and drags Ray around to sightsee. At first, the movie functions by letting the audience get to know these two likable characters, and to find out what went wrong with the hit. The social and cultural humor is hilarious. I particularly love the scene where Ray tries to explain to a bunch of tourists that they shouldn't try to go to the top of the church tower because they're too fat to climb the stairs.

Then, the movie shifts gears and becomes much darker and more serious than I had anticipated. Even with this giant shift in tone, the movie comes together wonderfully.

All of the actors involved are wonderful. Someone I forgot to mention was Ralph Fiennes, who plays the boss, whose insanity and ruthlessness are absolutely perfect. Gleeson is charming as always, and Farrell shows a new dimension of himself, in a kind of comic and tragic role that suits him perfectly.

Oh, and now that I've seen this movie, I would really like to visit the city of Bruges. As soon as the movie began, I turned to Ric and said, "I want to go there!" and I'm serious. I don't know when it would happen, but I would love to see it.

Since I didn't know very much about the plot before seeing the movie, I believe that's the best way to see it, so I'm not going to discuss it much further. I don't think it's for everyone because of how dark it can be. But Ric and I loved it, and will definitely recommend it to several of our friends.