Monday, July 18, 2011

Cinema 2011 #68: The Guard



He’s good. He’s bad. He’s also kind of ugly. But Most of all, Brendan Gleeson is slyly brilliant in John Michael McDonagh’s feature film debut, The Guard. Something of a comedic contemporary Western, albeit taking place amid the dry stone walls of Connemara on the wesht coast of Ireland, Gleeson is Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a Garda officer dealing with the looming threat of an international drugs cartel, a pencil-pushing FBI Agent (Don Cheadle) flown over to solve the case, and the crushing apathy of his own professional ennui.

Shrewdly perceptive of the criminal underbelly, cruelly dismissive of his fellow officers, Boyle concentrates his detective skills on finding money in murder victim’s wallets, ordering prostitutes from the big city, and deliberately undermining his superiors for his own amusement. Gleeson is dryly arresting and dominates every scene he’s in as Boyle, layering this country Garda with enough sharp intelligence and underhanded charm to win the audience over to a man who’s so comfortable in his public service job that he won’t consider cancelling his day off in the middle of a full-scale international investigation. His Boyle is enigmatic, annoyingly brilliant and with surprising integrity and balls in the big blast ending. 

On seeing the Knickerbocker Glory, there was no denying the food envy
Cheadle is great as Wendell Everett, the FBI foil in this buddy cop farce, essentially carrying out the role of the audience by being disgusted at Boyle’s indifference, yet beguiled by his crime solving prowess. But Cheadle succeeds in making Everett rather likeable as the fish out of water, despite essentially having to be the straight man with a shillelagh up his arse. The trio of baddies, too, are extremely watchable, though underused, with David Wilmot’s sociopathic O’Leary a wonder of wild-eyed wiles, Mark Strong disaffectedly deadpan and Liam Cunningham game for a laugh. Fionnula Flanagan, however, suffers from a shoehorned role as Boyle’s terminally ill mother, in a subplot that’s supposed to provide pathos, but feels rushed and unnecessary beside Boyle’s relationship with another copper’s immigrant wife. Add to that her looking far too much the glamorous granny than sickly senior on death’s door.

In fact, appearances are the biggest problem with The Guard, with the film looking every bit as low budget as it is. Filming scenes in Eddie Rockets aside, the cinematography looks below par, like the camera crew of Ros na Rún were doing a nixer of an evening and the lighting guy was dozing. McDonagh’s script, too, also comes across as cheap at times, using broad stereotypes too often and losing touch with the sharper side of the writing, earning him a couple of penalty points for tiresome additions to the mirth of the Micks.

But when McDonagh gets it right, which he does more often than not, and combined with Gleeson’s gleefully disgraceful guard, the film is a black beauty to behold.

Just don't mention the trailer.

3 ½ Likes




Released: July 8th on general release
Runtime: 96 Minutes

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