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MARTIN McDonagh is usually referred to as an Irish playwright, though he was born in London (of Irish parents) and apparently has lived in Britain longer than he has in Ireland.

Colin Farrell, who turns in one of his best performances in years, in a scene from In Bruges

In Bruges (MA15+) 3½ stars National release MARTIN McDonagh is usually referred to as an Irish playwright, though he was born in London (of Irish parents) and apparently has lived in Britain longer than he has in Ireland.

Celebrated for his two stage trilogies (The Leenane Trilogy and The Aran Islands Trilogy) as well as for The Pillowman, McDonagh comes to the cinema, like David Mamet before him, as a master of theatrical, if obscene, language.

More than that, he comes to his first feature film, In Bruges, already brandishing the Oscar he won in 2006 for best live action short film, Six Shooter, which starred Brendan Gleeson who is reunited with McDonagh for his first feature.

Watching In Bruges, it quickly becomes clear that McDonagh is bringing to the cinema the same colourful use of words that impressed theatre audiences; the film is at times brilliantly written, maybe over-written, because what works on stage doesn't necessarily work on screen. It's also very evident that McDonagh is a good collaborator with actors: Colin Farrell has turned in some questionable performances lately but has rarely been better than he is here as a whingeing, moody killer.

Although McDonagh has acknowledged Mamet's influence on him, the screenplay for In Bruges harks back to early work by Harold Pinter, especially The Dumb Waiter, in which two hit men hang out while awaiting instructions from their employer.

Ray (Farrell) and Ken (Gleeson) have carried out a kill in London as instructed by their mysterious boss, Harry (we only hear Harry's voice on the phone at first, but halfway through the film we meet him in the person of Ralph Fiennes). Something has gone wrong (as we find out later in a flashback featuring an uncredited Ciaran Hinds) and the killers have been instructed by Harry to lie low in the beautiful medieval Belgian town of Bruges, which is situated around a series of canals inland from the port of Ostend.

Ray, who is relatively new to the game, is angry about this enforced lay-off; he's too much of a modernist, or perhaps a philistine, to appreciate the old-world charms of the city, and he resents having to share a room in a small hotel with the far more relaxed and experienced Ken.

For much of the film McDonagh allows this odd couple to bicker and nit-pick; as a character study, this works because the writing is so sharp and the performances so spot-on. Always in the background, though, is the knowledge that Harry isn't exactly pleased with the way Ken and Ray handled their last job, and it's only a matter of time before some kind of reckoning is called for.

In the meantime, other characters are introduced. Ray stumbles on to the set of a film being shot in the town and meets Chloe (Clemence Poesy), who seems to be employed by the film company, and actor Jimmy (Jordan Prentice). In one of the film's best scenes Ray and Chloe dine at a posh restaurant and when a North American couple at the next table understandably complain about Chloe smoking, a fight breaks out.

As the film evolves from its Mamet-Pinter formula, with its cheerfully non-PC approach, into Tarantino territory for its violent finale, McDonagh's grip on the material slackens. It's as though he is more at ease with the character-driven, dialogue-filled first half of the film, and less with the more conventional action scenes, which aren't that well staged. Luckily, this section of the film is more or less redeemed by Fiennes, who is in good form as the deadly, vengeful Harry, so there are compensations.