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Writer/director Michael Haneke's matter-of-fact storytelling makes the French drama CACHÉ (HIDDEN) all the more chilling. Fair Warning: those who don't think a suspense thriller is truly thrilling without tons of inventively gory violence and a high body count may start tapping their feet impatiently. Indeed, some might simply use those feet to walk out on the film, like one bored couple did in the theater where I saw CACHÉ during its 2005 theatrical run. However, those who appreciate intelligent psychological thrillers with a slow fuse (like me) will be riveted by the war of nerves between book critic/TV personality Georges Laurent (Daniel Auteuil) and whoever is sending him videotapes of his house and his family going through their daily routine, as well as creepy childlike drawings of a young boy bleeding from the mouth. Is it the fallout from some mindless cruelty Georges inflicted on a young Algerian boy during their youth? Is Georges just plain paranoid? Or does the answer lie in something out of the blue? I don't want to give away too much, but I found CACHÉ to be a fascinating study of how past misdeeds and lies -- even lies that were intended to protect the protagonists' loved ones -- can catch up with you no matter how you've turned your life around. Juliette Binoche is sympathetic as Georges' increasingly frightened and angry wife, as is Maurice Bénichou as the now-grown Algerian who may be getting a bum rap (his final scene is as tragic as it is shocking). If this kind of psychological suspense is your cup of hemlock, CACHÉ is well worth seeing! (As of this writing, it's airing on the IFC Channel.)

I first saw the dark comedy-thriller IN BRUGES (IB) in our local multiplex back in April 2008, and I loved it immediately. No wonder writer/director Martin McDonagh's screenplay went on to be nominated for an Oscar, and co-star Colin Farrell won a Golden Globe award for Best Actor in a Comedy/Musical! When McDonagh's short film SIX SHOOTER, starring Brendan Gleeson, won the 2005 Oscar for Best Live Action Short Film, I was already familiar with his plays (including the 2005 Broadway hit THE PILLOWMAN with our family's household fave Jeff Goldblum), so I looked forward to seeing Gleeson work with McDonagh again in IB. I wasn't disappointed. McDonagh's quirky, funny, soul-searching dialogue is a joy to hear. It's chock full of profanity, but the delivery renders it more comical than offensive. The filmmakers even spoof the "adult language" in one of the DVD's bonus features, a montage of every time the word "F***" is used in IB.

Gleeson and Farrell make a great seriocomic team as Ken and Ray, two Irish hit men who have suspenseful and surreal adventures hiding out in Belgium in the magnificent city of Bruges after their latest job goes horribly, heartbreakingly wrong. They're the ultimate odd-couple tourists as they await further instructions from their boss, with Ken enjoying the sightseeing and the swans as Ray spews forth befuddled, unfavorable, hilariously un-PC opinions of just about everything and everyone he encounters, except a pretty Flemish production assistant (Clemence Poesy of 127 HOURS), who's as full of surprises as our undercover assassins. Farrell gives one of his very best performances, blending laugh-out-loud comedy and guilt-ridden heartache beautifully. My favorite running gag was Ray's childlike fascination with dwarfs, and his oafish but well-meant concern for cokehead dwarf actor Jimmy (Jordan Prentice), who's in the fairytale-like city to appear in a dream sequence in a local indie art-house flick. As Harry, the boys' crime boss, Ralph Fiennes does a terrific job channeling Sir Ben Kingsley as the terrifying Don in SEXY BEAST (I assure you, that's a compliment!). IB mixes suspense, melancholia, and hilarity very well indeed. Along with THE BANK JOB, IB was my favorite crime film of 2008. The DVD's featurettes and deleted scenes are fun, too, including interviews, a captioned boat tour of Bruges, and a deleted scene involving Matt Smith in his pre-DOCTOR WHO days -- and a machete! The many deleted scenes are all quite entertaining; I'm sure they were only cut so IB wouldn't be a 3-hour epic! :-)