Director: John Michael McDonagh
Cast: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong, David Wilmot
Certification: 15
Running Time: 96mins
Synopsis: Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a small-town Irish cop with a confrontational personality, a subversive sense of humor, a dying mother, a fondness for prostitutes, and absolutely no interest whatsoever in the international cocaine-smuggling ring that has brought straight-laced FBI agent Wendell Everett to his door.
Brendan Gleeson, the Deatheater hunter ‘Mad Eye’ Moody in HARRY POTTER and reliable gangster/killer in IN BRUGES which funnily enough written and directed by THE GUARD’s brother Martin McDonagh, stars as the seeminly over the hill, disillusioned garda (Irish police force). This is beautifully illstruted in the opening of the film where Gleeson sits back to watch a fatal car crash and then pilfer the pockets of the dead youths to get rid of then sample the tabs of acid they were carrying, remarking “What a beautiful fuckin’ day”. As you can guess Gleeson’s Gerry Boyle is not your typical cop with his penchant for hookers and taking the piss out of everyone while only doing his job when provoked. And that is how he is pushed into the case of the half a billion dollar cocaine shipment coming into Ireland. He would happily ignore the drug traffickers in Liam Cunningham (PERRIER’S BOUNTY), Mark Strong (GREEN LANTERN) and David Wilmot (THE TUDORS). He only intervenes on the disappearance of his new partner from Dublin town.
The main idea of the film is an irish, or at least a contemporary take on the buddy cop dynamic made famous from 48 HOURS and LETHAL WEAPON. This is seen between Gleeson’s ‘irish culture racism’ and the by the book FBI agent Don Cheadle (HOTEL RWANDA) who as you can tell comments like ‘I thought only black boys were drug dealers?’ don’t sit well. Together the pair are great mostly because of Gleeson rather than Cheadle as his character is slightly too rooted to the ground, not having the chance to really deliver the comedy gold Gleeson has. This however is the only complaint on the film as Gleeson is fantastic, probably his best performance since THE GENERAL (1998).
This is not just a black comedy, crime film though as McDonagh takes, what could be a flat, one liner film and adds some heart. This is seen with the relationship between Gleeson and his mother (Fionnula Flanagan, KILL THE IRISHMAN) who is dying. Their warm repartee going from comedic to tender moments that work best on film as they are not said but delivered through the acting with these two being fine ones.
Also a unique element is seen through one of the villains of the piece. Mark Strong is an international drug trafficker who does not do manual labour and is in the middle of an existentialist crisis. Where a normal villain would just want to gain shallow goals; more money, more women, more power, Strong’s character wants rid of the life stating ‘how much money does someone need?’ He’s tired of the loose-moraled individuals that he deals with day in day out.
Thankfully THE GUARD is doing good business in the USA and is soon to become Ireland’s biggest grossing independent film of all time, which is all well deserved. However I spent a lot of time with the Irish and, even though they have not seen the film yet, they have brought up a good point. In the last number of years films such as PERRIER’S BOUNTY, IN BRUGES and now THE GUARD (all of which have been the most successful), provide a possible negative impression of the Irish people. All the characters in the above mentioned films talk and have knowledge of highly educated things (literature, philosophy etc). Yet their actions and opinions are stupid, which of course drives the films action and comedy. I don’t have a problem with that bit with these being the most popular and commercially successful types of Irish films then there maybe a tendency for the Irish Film Board to only fund these type of films. They have a history of throwing all their money in one direction.
But I greatly urge you to see this film, its a hoot and better than anything realised at the moment.
THE GUARD is out August 19th 2011.
