On this occasion I feel that Mr Sarris has been a bit stingy with the praise. I saw this film a couple of weekends ago in England and was knocked sideways by it.

It has two amazing things going for it which are not mentioned above. Firstly the 'contortions' of the plot are not, in my mind contortions at all, but an amazing exercise in thematic cohesiveness. I do not want to go into it in case I be accused of spoiling, but the six major characters in the film are always trying to separate from each other, but fate or mischance always brings them tragically back together.

The fact that the writer/director comes from the theatre is an explanation for this, but it is entirely to the film's benefit in terms of expressing arc of the classical tragedy that it describes.

Second point is that (and I would have expected AS to see this), what we have here is, effectively, a re-working of (and in my view improvement on) 'Odd Man Out' - with the redemptive power of love still failing to outwit cruel fate.

Colin Farrell is, quite simply stunning and McDonagh's mise en scène is pitched at a very, very high level of creativity.