When a job goes wrong for assassin Ray (Colin Farrell), he is told to hide out in Bruges, Belgium with his mentor Ken (Brendan Gleeson) by their vicious boss Harry.

Not a fan of the town, Ray's holiday soon gets worse as muggers, midgets and mouthy tourists start annoying him.
But when their reason for being sent to Bruges becomes clear, it's not only the foreign customs Ray has to deal with.

Writer and director McDonagh's collection of Olivier Awards for playwriting indicates why the dialogue sizzles between all the characters in such an effortless manner.

But the real skill comes in his ability to keep drenching even the most solemn and serious moments with dark humour, then instantly
switching on authentic sentiment without seeming discordant.

With such a demanding range of contrasting emotions to bring to the screen, a cast who are up to scratch are required.

And in this case they are supplied by the bucket load.

Brendan Gleeson's turn as the wizened, older hitman is a pleasure to watch as he suffers his younger and more frenetic colleague.

And Ralph Fiennes as cockney hard-man Harry manages to incite fear and laughs in equal measure with his no nonsense, aggressive manner.

But it is Colin Farrell who has a little more to bring forth than his co-stars; balancing simplistic, Father Ted style idiocy, spur of the
moment comical violence and witty comments, with genuine soul consuming guilt and tear-jerking emotional outbreaks – sometimes
within the same scene.

While the overall plot is relatively simple, the microscopic attention to detail mixed in with quirky comments makes for a fascinating and engrossing film, with only a few occasional technical blunders like out of focus shots faulting what is essentially a cracking piece of character based cinema.

A barrage of bad language, grizzly effects when used, and a heart-wrenchingly impossible quest for redemption counter against laugh out
loud comedy moments to create a solid first film by a director to watch out for.

8/10 – Right on target.