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Martin McDonagh’s 2005 Oscar-winning live-action short was a dark comedy filled with biting dialogue. His 2008 feature film debut is a dark comedy filled with biting dialogue. The former playwright, now screenwriter, has followed the old adage — write what you know. And he knows black humor. This witty crime comedy mixes dark laughs with real drama. McDonagh flips and twists the story, keeping the audience gripped. But he does so with ingenious moral conundrums that build one on the other. Hitmen may be killers, but it doesn’t mean they don’t have consciences.

After a job gone wrong, hitmen Ray (Colin Farrell, ALEXANDER) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson, GANGS OF NEW YORK) are sent away to Bruges, Belgium to hang low until their boss Harry (Ralph Fiennes, THE ENGLISH PATIENT) calls. Ken embraces the opportunity to sightsee in the most well preserved medieval city in Europe. However, Ray couldn’t be more displeased with the boring tourist trap. A film being shot in town piques Ray’s interest, because it features a dwarf named Jimmy (Jordan Prentice, HOWARD THE DUCK) and brings him in contact with the beautiful Chloe (Clemence Poesy, HARRY POTTER AND THE GOBLET OF FIRE), a local drug dealer. The botched job weighs heavy on Ray’s soul and Ken’s faith will be shaken along the way as well.

McDonagh’s script is tight and filled with great irony. He’s working in the crime genre, but subtly spoofing it at the same time. Ray and Ken are real characters with feelings and thoughts, not just riffs on assassins we’ve seen before. Though the tone is much different, I was reminded of the dynamic between John Travolta’s Vincent and Samuel L. Jackson’s Jules in PULP FICTION. The story unfolds at a fun clip, each scene nicely building on top of the previous one. McDonagh also has a slick way of starting off a scene like it’s just a funny aside or character moment, but allowing it to pay off for the plot in the end. Every element of the story weaves together powerfully in the end, giving this crime comedy more poignancy than one might expect.

Farrell plays Ray as a perpetual child who can’t sit still for more than 10 seconds. Gleeson’s Ken is a smart, cultured man, who seems an unlikely assassin, but when we discover how he arrived in this line of work it makes complete sense. Fiennes’ Harry is like a bulldog on a chain; you never quite know if he’s going to bite or lick his friends. Still he is a man of honor as twisted as his code might be. Even supporting characters like Jimmy and Chloe are allowed to have weight and depth, not just function as needed points in a plot.

This is dark material and can often be quite brutal, but so are the characters. One of the more gruesome moments was needed for the plot to work, however by inserting other bloody bits into the rest of the film the ending fits right in with the tone and style. McDonagh is a skilled and thoughtful writer. It deserves a screenplay Oscar nomination and I hope it is remembered come award time. Few thrillers are poignant and try to be something more than diversions. Actually, few films in a year are poignant. IN BRUGES has it all, as does its director.