In Bruges (McDanagh, 2008)

Martin McDonagh's 2008 film, In Bruges feels a little like a poorly made Hollywood hit-man or buddy flick, but is much more. The coarsely offensive dialogue, and painfully contrived action sequences (which garner zero attention from law enforcement) act as evidence of the absurdity of life in the existential character study.

After a job goes wrong, and a young boy gets killed by Ray's (Colin Farrell) stray gunfire, Ray and his older, calmer partner Ken (Brendan Gleeson) are sent to the purgatory-on-Earth that is Bruges, Belgium. It is not too surprising that a British film about two Irishmen would have such strong religious overtones. While they are not religious men, they are searching for the meaning of life. Through all of the absurdity they encounter, Ray begins to believe there is no meaning and that there is nothing to live for, especially after killing a child. Ken seems to take the side that there may not be something inherently meaningful in life, it is what you do with it that counts.

Ray's interest in the film set is a meta-filmic reminder that the world he is in is, in fact, fiction. Through the people he meets on set, Chloe (Clémence Poésy) and Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), he is brought into an entirely ridiculous world of drugs, racism, prostitution, and criminal on criminal violence. Even when it seems as if he has made it out of Bruges, and moved onto salvation, the first and only sign of law enforcement removes him from his train for a scuffle in a restaurant with a 'Canadian'. His absurdity comes to a climax when, after being shot he stumbles back onto the film set and does not recognize it as such and literally enters into a "fairytale".

Ken's attempt to save Ray by sacrificing himself to warn him and provide a weapon for his protection is ultimately in vain. Ken attempts to, after all of the bad things he has done, do something to help someone, thereby giving meaning to his life. He is not so much a Christ figure, as another victim of this existential tragedy.