‘‘Put one Irishman on a spit,’’ the old saying goes, ‘‘and you can always find another to baste him.’’

Bigoted? Probably, but Irish-on-Irish basting seems to be everywhere you look in ‘‘Intermission,’’ a rancorous dark comedy about a mob of ticked-off Dubliners who are either cursing, fighting or lamenting lost loves.

Director John Crowley — a veteran of Irish theater — bobs and weaves through a loose federation of crooks, adulterous husbands, bitter bus drivers, disgruntled TV reporters and other assorted malcontents, bringing to mind the jumpy cross-section of Angelenos in Robert Altman's ‘‘Short Cuts.’’

Cillian Murphy, last seen slaughtering zombies in Danny Boyle's ‘‘28 Days Later,’’ plays what you might (somewhat inaccurately) call the hero of the movie, a grocery clerk named John who dissolves his relationship with girlfriend Deirdre (Kelly Macdonald from ‘‘Trainspotting’’) to test her devotion. Confused and heartbroken, Deirdre starts dating a married, middle-age bank manager (Michael McElhatton), tipping a domino fall of spiteful turns that cuts back and topples the tipper.

The ironic justice, on the whole, is somewhat less than towering. To wit, when John's sexually deprived best friend, Oscar (David Wilmot), picks up the banker's spurned wife at a dance club and becomes the unwitting recipient of her marital hostilities, the only sustained sensation is vague amusement. Ditto for long-lashed rebel Colin Farrell, playing a ruthless petty thief who recruits John for a bank heist.

In the end, ‘‘Intermission’’ tries to reinvent itself as a hardscrabble love story, at which point the characters start to feel more like slapstick caricatures than real people caught up in the eddies of urban living. In short, it's no ‘‘Go’’ — the Doug Liman-directed roller-coaster ride that set the standard for these multinarrative crisscross jobs.

Still, the wordplay is extremely keen, and screenwriter Mark O'Rowe has a talent for hunting out curious situations. ‘‘Intermission’’ is full of funny riffs on female maxillofacial hair and the wonder of Guinness stout, plus a lot of other heavily accented wit that most likely passed uncomprehended through these stiff American ears.

‘Intermission’
Starring: Cillian Murphy, Kelly Macdonald, Colin Farrell
Playing: Opens Friday at Camelview
Rating: Not rated (profanity, violence, sexuality)
Running time: 106 minutes
Grade: C+