Colin Farrell lets his comic chops loose this week in his new film In Bruges, written and directed by Oscar winner Martin McDonagh. CAHIR O'DOHERTY spoke to Farrell and McDonagh about the project.

IN Bruges, the killingly funny debut full-length film by Oscar and Tony winning writer and director Martin McDonagh, opens on Friday, February 8. A dark new work, it features a mould breaking performance by Colin Farrell. In Bruges plays to every one of Farrell's strengths as he fires on all cylinders from start to finish.

The story is deceptively simple - two Irish men, Ray (Colin Farrell) and Ken (Brendan Gleeson) work for Harry (Ralph Fiennes) as hit men. But after one of their hits goes badly wrong, Harry sends them both to Bruges in Belgium to cool their heels and wait for his instructions.

Bruges turns out to be a small town with nothing to do other then sightsee or drink at the local pub. Although Ken takes a liking to the village right away Ray, still dealing with the aftermath of the botched hit, struggles with having nothing to do.

Finally, they receive the call from Harry with instructions that they aren't actually in Bruges hiding out but were sent there for other reasons entirely - and mayhem ensues.

To talk about the film, you might as well start with its star. Meeting Farrell, 31, is a bit like meeting Mick Jagger at the height of his career. In his leather wristbands, shoulder length hair and three-day stubble, Farrell looks much more like a rock star than a Hollywood type. But a Hollywood A-List actor he certainly is.

Sitting beside him is Clemence Posey, the beautiful young French actress who co-stars with him in In Bruges. She looks like a young Marianne Faithful.

Farrell and herself laugh and chain smoke though our interview on Monday at the swank Regency Hotel on Park Avenue, using plastic water cups for ash trays, and sometimes almost accidentally drinking from them.

Farrell greets everyone he meets with a standard Dublin how'ya and smiles broadly. For a star of his stature he's as low key and approachable as can be.

You can also still see traces of the young Dublin lad he was once in the man he has now become, making you think that, in order to keep their feet firmly on the ground, all screen heart throbs should be raised in Ireland. Although Farrell has unquestionably enjoyed a lot of high living - and the mornings after that inevitably follow - somehow he's kept his head on and his wits about him, and he looks relaxed and prepared as for the blaze of publicity that surrounds him.

Asked how he's managed not to work with Brendan Gleeson before now he replies sarcastically, "I've been avoiding him for years! No seriously, I'm a huge fan of Brendan's work and obviously there's the Irish connection, and so it was a pleasure to work with him this time."

Farrell admits that he had heard about McDonagh's plays but had never actually seen one staged when the script for In Bruges arrived. After one read of it he signed on.

As luck would have it, one of McDonagh's plays was being produced in Belgium in a nearby city as they were filming In Bruges, so Farrell and Posey sat in on a performance. Since it was in French, Flemish and English, they barely understand a word.

"They translated the script into this hybrid language and Martin was saying, 'I can't believe the first f***ing time you've seen my work its in bloody Flemish.' The play was on a lower budget than our film and it didn't really translate," recalls Farrell.

Playing comedy is a low budget independent film by McDonagh is a world away from the epic scale of his role in director Oliver Stone's Alexander, and Farrell admits it had a freeing effect on him. Both the setting and the script allowed him to push the envelope a little.

"The script was hilarious on reading it, there was a lot of cracking up and it was very hard sometimes to get through scenes without uproarious laughter," says Farrell.

"But I didn't really see the whole film as a comedy. At the end of the day I'm playing a character who's suicidal for three days and as despondent as a man can be."

Farrell was impressed by McDonagh's use of language and the scenarios he'd created, and that made signing on to do it easy. Even the choice of Bruges itself - a constant reminder to the two hit men that they're there for a reason - struck him as inspired.

And just like the two men in the film, Gleeson and Farrell began to disagree on the merits of Bruges itself. Gleeson loved it, Farrell found it deadly dull.

Farrell's rise from his debut role in Tigerland in 2000 until now has been unstoppable but not without incident, including a stop in rehab a couple of years back. Asked if he's pleased with the way he's progressed to date he nods.

"I've been lucky enough to get incredible opportunities over the years and I certainly didn't choose the last three films to be as small as they are, in comparison to some of the things I've done," he says. "I was just fascinated with the characters and that's what it comes down to for me in the end. Anything that asks questions about why we are the way we are. I'm lucky to still be working in that respect!"

Coincidentally, in Farrell's other current film Cassandra's Dream, written and directed by Woody Allen, he also plays a young man hired to do a hit and deal with the tragic outcome.

"Well, I've never murdered someone and it wasn't something I wanted to take a closer look at. So yeah it was just a coincidence," he says.

"After Woody, Martin came along and that was it. I think I talked more to Martin on the first day than Woody talked to me for the entire shoot. He's a lovely shy man."

Pride and Glory, another film starring Farrell that was scheduled to be released in March, has had its release date pushed back until the end of the year. The gritty film about Irish American New York cops co-stars Edward Norton, and Farrell says, contrary to the rumor mill, the film is not a mess.

"I feel the need to kind of speak up for Gavin O'Connor because he wrote and directed it. It's just a really strong piece, but I think the New Line production company lost their bollocks on The Golden Compass, you know, and they literally don't have enough money to market things," Farrell offers.

Meanwhile, taking the last nine months off, the actor mentioned he is devoted to helping his son, James, who is suffering from a rare disorder, Angelman's Syndrome, and helping his ex-girlfriend Kim Bordenave raise the child away from media spotlight. He's also admits he's enjoying the time away from the limelight himself.

McDonagh told the Irish Voice that when he wrote In Bruges the two hit characters had been English, but he quickly changed their nationalities when he discovered that Gleeson and Farrell had agreed to star.

"It wasn't difficult to change things around, and in a way they brought out other aspects of the story. There's a chemistry between them on the screen and I think they really nail the characters," he says.

With In Bruges, McDonagh hopes that audiences will "experience a story that's funny, sexy, and dangerous but at the same time sad, thoughtful, and oddly joyous."

McDonagh plans to visit the city again, confiding, "I actually can't wait to go back to Bruges, but I think I'd better go before the film comes out there - because they're probably going to kill me."