3. Ray (In Bruges)
Colin Farrell's Ray is funny, inappropriate and has a bad boy charm that makes him fun to watch. This (along with
Daredevil's Bullseye) is my favourite performance by Farrell. What's so enjoyable about Ray is that he seems to inadvertently stumble into situations he had no intention of causing. Getting into a 'showdown' with some rather large American tourist after calling them elephants. Punching two restaurant diners in a face after getting into a disagreement over cigarette smoke (and calling them Yankee bastards, classing this assault as a revenge attack on the murder of John Lennon!). Insulting midget actors dressed as a schoolboy. It's almost as if what comes out of his mouth isn't his fault. Which is very endearing. And also quite wrong. Because, the reason he's in hiding in Bruge in the first place is because he killed a small boy. In the end, he's been shot but he's alive, still in the eternal hell that has become his time in Bruges...and somehow he hasn't been held accountable for his actions prior to the start of the film. You know that he'll get through the surgery, he'll move on to other things and he'll keep putting his mouth (and his fist) in places he shouldn't. Despite all that, he killed a boy and got away with it. How much charm can account for that? Not enough...