"In Bruges" Movie Review

Last night I watched the film In Bruges, having no idea what to expect – I had purposely not read anything about the plot or who was in the film. To my surprise, whose face should appear at the beginning of the film – Colin Ferrell and my initial thought was ugh – this is going to be a long hour and forty-five minutes. I was wrong. Colin Ferrell, Brendan Gleeson and Ralph Fines were fantastic in the film – something I have come to expect of Gleeson and Fines, but was blown away by Ferrell. The film was well acted, well directed and well shot. Here is a synopsis and my thoughts on In Bruges.

In Bruges is a humorous film about two hitmen visiting Bruges, Belgium. Ken (played by Brendan Gleeson – whom I always enjoy) and Ray (Ferrell) are a study in contrasts, with Ken wanting to sightsee in Bruges and take in the beauty and history of the city. Ray on the other hand cannot imagine a worse place to be than Bruges and would prefer to spend his time in the pub. When Ray meets Chloe, it appears that he is going to enjoy Bruges a little more, but that feeling is short lived.
The crux of In Bruges lies in the internal struggle of Ray over the accidental killing of a young boy during his first hit. Ray is troubled and wracked with guilt over accidentally killing the boy, but seemingly unaffected by his murder of the priest. In killing the boy, Ray has broken a principle that Harry (Ray’s boss) lives by and Harry orders Ken to kill Ray. Harry’s principle is that if he would have killed the boy, he would have killed himself right then and there.

As Ken goes to fulfill Harry’s demand, Ray is about to commit suicide because he is so troubled by his own actions. Ken decides that he cannot kill Ray and cannot let Ray kill himself. In a self-sacrifice, Ken puts Ray on a train and waits for Harry to show up and take his vengeance. Of course, nothing goes as planned, Ray ends up back in Bruges due to prior events, Harry shoots Ken (who jumps from a bell-tower) and Ray only to end up shooting himself, thinking he had accidentally killed an innocent boy (who was really a dwarf dressed up as a school boy). The film ends with Ray providing narration as he is lifted into an ambulance. In a change of heart, he now wants to live – and certainly does not want to die and spend an eternity in Bruges.

I really enjoyed In Bruges, and found it to be a film I could easily theologically dialogue with. For me, the character of Ray illuminated the truth of an individual’s struggle with sin, guilt and consequences. In the film, Ray was certainly living in a depressing and guilt-wracked world, which he could see no escape except death. While it was not overt, I thought Ray found redemption at the end of In Bruges, through the sacrifice of Ken and the relationship with Chloe – he was able to move beyond his guilt, depression and desire for death to a desire to live. I think about my own life, there are things I wish I could undo, sin I wish I could uncommit and I identify with Ray – when I try to deal with all of this on my own, it weighs me down into a dark and ugly place. However, through the self-sacrifice of Jesus Christ and loving relationships of family, friends and a church community I am able to find redemption.

Snow

This morning I woke up to snow covering everything. It was perfect snow, it stuck to everything but the roads - so they were easy to drive on, but all the mountains are white! It is beautiful.
Kyle Orton, the Bears QB got hurt this past Sunday - he could be out up to 4 weeks, but it looks like he'll be back sooner; however he won't be playing this Sunday, so I have to sit through another Rex Grossman game - I thought I was done with that, I don't need that in my life.
I have really enjoyed watching Derrick Rose (the #1 pick in the 2008 NBA draft) in his first 4 games this season - he is so much faster that humans should be allowed to be, he reminds me of my friend Kyle - explosive.
I read that book "Twilight" because I'd heard so much about it, but since I'm not a 15 year old girl and I'm not into vampires I didn't enjoy it very much. I also saw the Indiana Jones movies this past weekend for the first time (we don't get out to the movies with kids, plus the closest movie theater with more than one screen is 50 minutes from our house) - Aliens, really. Shame on you George and Steven. I also watched a documentary called "Cocain Cowboys" about the Miami cocain scene in the 70's and 80's - very informative and interesting.
I think I'm going to read Terry Brooks' Shannara series next - I've always been a bit opposed to reading Brooks, especially since, from what I've heard, he basically just remakes LOTR, but then I decided - I loved LOTR and when I read for fun, I want to have fun - so what if it is predictable and derivitive material - I bet I'll enjoy it (I'll let you know).
I hate daylight savings time. I love the new yeast rolls Amy makes! I hate Rex Grossman. I love watching my girls get excited about things (like the snow).

Cascade :(

Sadly, Cascade College will be closing it's doors at the end of the Spring 2009 semester. My life has been blessed by Cascade and I still don't know exactly how to feel about this news - I'm kind of in shock, kind of in denail, the grieving process hasn't started yet. Here are a few of my favorite Cascade memories

Meeting Amy
The Lower JC - hours of wasted time and classes skipped, but relationships built.
No dinner on Sunday - really? No food for 250 people living here depending on the cafateria for food and it's closed?
Rich Jandt doing things.
Shawn Jones handing out 89's.
What wooden mallet?
The cafeteria prank in which Rich wrote Lamda Chi Omega on everything and the Lamda president got chewed out by the cafeteria staff.
Different color water on each floor of York-Landreth.
Room 302.
Colored mice.
Alvin Chan's revenge.
James Wood going from Alpha Chi to failure to Alpha Chi
Kingsmen
Wes Harrison watching TBN every night in our room (he didn't live there).
The black pepper incedent.
Ryan Peters vs. the drunk security guard
Billy McKenzie's blue suit
Ryan Emmons and I trying to walk to Wal-Mart

So many good memories, I am flooded with them right now - not all of which can be detailed here. Any Cascade memories you have?

Cold

So, I decided that after living here for 6 months and having TX plates with registration that expired in June I should go get my CO liscense plates this morning. To do this, I had to go to the Garfield County Courthouse, which is located in downtown Glenwood Springs. There is no parking downtown to be found and I had to park a loooonnnng ways from the courthouse. I don't generally wear a coat - because I go from my house to the car and from my car to the church. It is warm everywhere I am, much to warm for me to have stupid long sleeves on. Well, I had to walk basically to Denver from my car in 10 degrees and it felt cold. I got to the courthouse and forgot that they have metal detectors and no knives allowed in courthouses. I had to walk back to my car to ditch my leatherman. Then walk back to the courthouse. I went and did all the registration stuff, then noticed the sign that the county clerk doesn't accept credit/debit cards - of course they don't. I don't ususally carry any cash and never carry the checkbook, and there is no ATM in the courthouse - so back outside and a nice little 3 block walk to the ATM, then back, through the metal detector for the 3rd time and finally, my car looks like a local.

I'm rooting for the Phillies in the World Series. I'm reading a book called Twelve Keys to an Effective Church by Kennon L. Callahan right now. I'm excited because my friend John Kirklin is coming to visit next week. NBA season starts next week - go Bulls. I saw a electric pumpkin carver on Amazon's Gold Box deal of the day yesterday and almost bought it. We have sucky knives at home and they don't carve pumpkins very well. I need to buy a snow shovel.

Another reason I like Colorado

On a few occasions today, I have turned to look out my window, it has been beautifully sunny out with snowflakes falling. Sunny and snowing. I had a dream last night that it had snowed like 2 feet when I woke up and I didn't have a snow shovel. I think this dream had a lot of help from reality - Denver was getting snow last night and it was on the local (our local channels come from Denver) news weather forecast right before I went to bed. And, I don't have my snow shovel yet - so I dreamed about it. Also, I think I might buy snow tires soon, I wouldn't normally, but I drive 20 miles to work each day and it might be helpful to have those studded tires.

The church is having a worship weekend this weekend, we have Kip Long, the worship leader at Sycamore View Church of Christ in Memphis coming to lead, and I think it is going to be a really great weekend for our church. I've already been really encouraged by our succesfull launch with our small group ministry - we've had 75-80% particpation! God is good and it is a lot of fun to join him in his work.

Some thoughts...

I was reading the end of Mark 8 this morning - the part where Jesus tells the disciples around him that if they want to become his followers they must deny themselves, take up their cross and follow him. I don't have any profound thoughts on this - I understand the deny myself stuff - logically, it's just a lot harder to put into practice. One thing that caught my curiosity is the take up your cross phrase. I've never given this a lot of thought. Obviously Jesus knows where he is heading (to the Cross and Calvary) but I don't think that this statement would have made any sense whatsoever to the disciples Jesus is talking to. Now, that doesn't usually stop Jesus from saying things, I'm just wondering if this is a phrase attributed to Jesus after his death/resurrection/ascension. Also - what does it mean, exactly, to take up my cross? What do you think it means?

I watched the Bears-Vikings game yesterday, that was a lot of fun (48-41) but the one thing that struck me was Kyle Orton is good - not just a nice breath of fresh air after watching Rex Grossman crap the bed for 3+ years - but Orton makes good checks at the line, good decisions with the ball and a great passer rating. So this is what it's like to have an NFL QB!

Amy and I watched Iron Man last night - I'm not usually a big fan of the superhero movies (I loved the last two batmans, hated the last spiderman, refuse to watch edward norton degrade himself as the hulk, ect.) Actually, of all the superhero movies this decade (and there have been tons) I liked the first Spiderman, and the two Batmans. But I really liked Iron Man. It was fun, I was entertained the whole time and I've always liked RDJ - in spite of his issues, he's always hooked me in his movies. So, I liked Iron Man and I recommend it.

Now you know that. Oh and happy birthday to my friend Rich.

Lots of fun...

So, first, I've been a bad blogger the last couple of weeks - I've been really busy and haven't thought much about the blog. I should be back on course for a while.

Yesterday, the girls and I all went with the Dowdy's to their cabin. Pat is one of the elders at church, and they own some land (86 acres) with a cabin that Pat built in the mountains/forest between Glenwood and Aspen. We rode up to the cabin with the Dowdy's, had a wonderful lunch and got to go 4 wheeling through some of the most beautiful country I've ever seen. The Dowdy's property is adjacent to the Strawther's property (they go to church with us also) which is like 160 acres - so we got to ride through all of it. Mountains, groves of aspen trees, running water, ponds, it was beautiful. Allyson rode between Pat and Patsy, singing the whole time until she fell asleep and Lauren rode between Amy and I - but she fell asleep right away. It was a wonderful day.