Where Bad Conscience Leads

On consecutive nights I watched the black comedy “In Bruges” with Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson and Woody Allen’s latest effort “Cassandra’s Dream,” with Colin Farrell, Ewan McGregor and Tom Wilkerson. What interest me here is the moral linkage between both films and the resemblance in their plots.

”In Bruges” dealt with two deadly coincidences, two criminal shootings that misfired and resulted in the accidental death of a young boy in one, and a dwarf in the other. To use the parlance of the day, both deaths were collateral damage, people who died because they happened to be near the human targets the killers were assigned to eliminate. Ken (Brendan Gleeson) and Ray (Colin Farrell) are in Bruges, Belgium, waiting for their next assignment. To pass the time, Ken becomes a tourist and he truly finds Bruges of interest. It is still a medieval city with fascinating art and architecture, and Ken tries to engage Ray in these things but he gets nowhere. Ray, a restless youth, is not impressed. He finds Bruges a huge bore. Only when he meets a lovely local girl does his interest perk up. On one of the nights he is out with girl the crime boss (Ralph Fiennes) calls Ken and tells him his next assignment is a solo job: He has to kill Ray. The reason is on the previous job Ray shot and killed the target, a Catholic Priest, but he also hit and killed an Acolyte who was standing in back of the priest. Ray felt terrible when he realizes what he has done and since it happened every time he thinks of it he gets grim and shaky, as the guilt grabs him by the throat. But he is trying to live with the memory as best he can. Ken was surprised by what the boss wants done. In the boss’s view if Ray was a principled man he would have killed himself right away; but since he didn’t Ken has to do it for him. Later in the story that remark will come back to haunt the Boss. Yet, Ken knows he is a hit man and they are not supposed to let anything get in their way. Personal feelings about the target must not intervene. It’s a job and he has to do it. But when the moment arrives he can’t do it and he’s willing to suffer the consequences, that is, the boss will come after him as well as Ray. All hell breaks loose in the last twenty minutes of the film. There is a clash involving all three men that is bizarre and weirdly humorous. Moral confusion reigns and no one is left standing. If you want to know who killed the dwarf, you’ll have to see the film.

Two working class brothers, one a loose cannon, the other a narcissistic personality, are the main characters in Woody Allen’s “Cassandra’s Dream,” which is the name of a sailboat the lads buy at the beginning of the film. Like the brothers in “Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead,” the brothers have serious money problems. Ian (Ewan McGregor) has pipe dreams of being a rich man and is involved with a real estate deal in Los Angeles, some hotels being built, and he is trying to get in on the ground floor. He also has an actress girl friend that likes the best things and he wants to get them for her. Terry, the younger brother, has a serious gambling problem. He wins enough to take big risks in a high stakes poker game, and one night he is taken to the cleaners, ending up owing 90,000 pounds, an amount far beyond his capacity to find in a short period of time. He’s a car mechanic living on a short string. But the brothers think they have an out: A rich uncle who just happens to be in London. Howard, the uncle, (Tom Wilkerson) and when they talk to him is receptive to their needs, that is, if they are willing to do him a “favor.”

Sure, name it, the boys’ say. Then he lays out a story about his own financial and legal troubles, which he is never specific about, just that a previous associate is going to send him to jail if he testifies in court, so he must be “gotten rid of.” He plays the family card so heavily, even though the boys repulsed by the idea at first, especially Terry, they do eventually decided to do it, feeling they have no other option. Moral considerations are put aside for practical reasons. After the deed is done they have different responses. Ian resembles the Dentist in Woody Allen’s 1989 movie, ”Crimes and Misdemeanors,” who hires a hit man to rid him of a mistress who is threatening to tell his wife about their long time affair because she wants him to divorce the wife to marry her, which he has promised to do for years. Ian, like the Dentist, is egocentric enough to put the deed behind him in a hurry, going forward with his plans about his future, now that the uncle has helped him out and made his path smoother. In contrast, Terry is a nervous wreck, tormented by nightmares, twitchy with guilt, and needing alcohol to get through the days and pills to get through the night. As movie critic James Beradinelli put it, “Terry enters a guilt-fueled downward spiral.” When he starts talking about confessing to the police as he can’t live with himself, Ian goes to Uncle Howard who recommends killing him too, as there are no other options. Naturally, he expects Ian to take care of the matter. Ian agrees, he has no choice if he is to realize his dreams, so he plots to overdose Terry on their sailboat and then throw him overboard. However, when push comes to shove, like Ken, he can’t do it; brotherly love trumps all other considerations. But fate intervened at this point, and you will have to see how it ends.

“Where Bad Conscience Leads” could be the sub-title to both films. Guilt can gnaw on the insides of some people; others can compartmentalize the memory so it’s not disruptive or bothersome to the rest of the psyche. Unlike his brother, who was full of himself, Terry knew the difference between right and wrong, and he had a better grasp on the repercussions of their murderous act. He told Ian they were crossing a line, a point of no return, which was going to be destructive. Ian found out he was so emotionally tied up with his brother, they had to go down together. It was inevitable given who they were.

The Crime Boss and Uncle Howard were negative enablers who knew how to delegate the dirty work. Howard clearly felt above the fray and beyond the touch of morality. Morality ambiguity was not their style. They saw themselves as god-like supervisors of the fate of others; they were the deciders. As far as they were concerned, bad conscience was something for the little people to experience.