In Bruges

A slow-witted Irish hitman (Colin Farrell) and his more experienced mentor (Brendan Gleeson) are sent by their gangster boss (Ralph Fiennes) to Bruges, Belgium, to hide out after accidentally killing a kid during their latest job. Playwright Martin McDonagh (The Beauty Queen of Leenane), writing and directing his first feature, has a flair for daffy non-sequitur dialogue, and his actors have the wit and technique to make the most of it. But while the movie is quirky, engrossing and often mordantly funny, it’s also far-fetched and dramatically unpersuasive; McDonagh’s off-the-wall plotting is self-consciously eccentric and his coy dialogue sounds more like stuff a playwright would make up than things real gangsters (or Belgians, or Canadians, or Dutch prostitutes or McDonagh’s other characters) would say.