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Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson

Blessed with the same moribund wit and explosive violence as his Oliver Award-winning stage plays, Martin McDonagh's feature film directorial debut is a gloriously off-beat jaunt through modern day Belgium in the company of two hopelessly mismatched hit men.

The majestic belfry towers and rosary stalls of Bruges provide the unlikely backdrop for a blackly humorous tale of betrayal and redemption.

McDonagh's ear for dialogue is acute as ever and the gifts Colin Farrell and Brendan Gleeson some wonderfully foul-mouthed exchanges in which their hapless assassins debate the pleasures of sightseeing versus continental beer, with unexpectedly moving consequences.

In Bruges relies on the verbal jousting between Gleeson and Farrell and both are in fine form.

Rapport between the leads is interrupted by a slightly undernourished romantic subplot, and the arrival of Fiennes' Mr Big, complete with a Cockney accent that sounds like a poor imitation of Ben Kingsley's hard man in Sexy Beast.

Tensions between the crime boss and his underlings escalate into a full-blown running battle.

"Why don't you put your guns down and go home?" demands a hotelier meekly.

"Don't be stupid," sneers Harry, "this is the shoot-out." That told her.

4:44pm Thursday 17th April 2008

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