Perrier's Bounty

Directed by: Ian Fitzgibbon

Starring: Cillian Murphy, Jim Broadbent, Brendan Gleeson, Jodie Whittaker, Liam Cunningham

Synopsis:

Michael Macrae (Murphy) is having a bad night. Horribly hung over, he has to come up with a thousand Euros to pay off Darren Perrier or get two bones broken by his heavies. His estranged father has just turned up and told him he’s dying. His cute neighbour Brenda is being dumped by her cheating boyfriend, Shamie, and is feeling suicidal. And two car clampers have a vendetta against him. When one of Perrier’s heavies is killed by while about to break Michael’s legs, Michael, his dad and Brenda find themselves on the run from Dublin’s underworld, as Perrier has put a bounty on their heads…

Review:

Quirky comedies tend to be a bit hit and miss by their very nature – the nuanced humour will hit the funny bone for some but will miss by a wide margin for others. Luckily, Perrier’s Bounty hit the mark from the very beginning, and I found myself lightly chuckling away for the whole running time.

Michael Macrae is a man adrift, having cut his ties with his family a long time ago (a traumatic event explained by his dad late on), and has few real connections in the city of Dublin. He owes some money to Darren Perrier, the local crime boss, and has almost resigned himself to getting his legs broken for being late paying the loan back. His last ditch hope is a guy called Mutt (Cunningham), who gets him involved in a burglary and subsequent blackmail scheme (which, surprisingly for this kind of film, goes off without a hitch). But he’s not going to get his money in time.

There are definite parallels between this and Guy Ritchie’s early films, especially Lock, Stock and Snatch. The Dublin accents on show (especially Broadbent’s) are as broad and colourful as the Cockney slang. There lots of coincidental interactions between disparate, colourful characters, and just like Lock Stock and Snatch, it’s the characters on the periphery that you need to keep your eye on the most. Unlike Ritchie though, Fitzgibbon films the whole story in a more straightforward style so as not to distract from the story at hand.

Except for one moment of “being in the wrong place at the wrong time”, it’s the characters which drive the story. Everything that happens is borne from their motivations: be it survival, redemption or revenge. There are some great character moments, such as Perrier discovering his two top hard men were actually gay lovers, and Michael’s dad explaining how he knows he’s going to die. And then there’s the farmer’s wife and her extreme measures at getting them out of her barn.

David Holmes’ score provides an evocative backdrop, a laid-back late-night jazz score which is perfect accompaniment to the late-night, after-club setting.

Finally, I have to say something about the narration. Narration is becoming something of a bug-bear with me, as it is used too often to present information which we could have gleaned just by watching the damn film (see The Perfect Sleep for a prime example of narration overload). I watched this back-to-back with Animals, which is very guilty of this type of info-dump. It’s a sign of lack of confidence in the material and the audience’s ability to digest information. Now, Perrier’s Bounty starts with a voice-over, and we get one or two more moments of narration later on. But rather than telling us what is happening, the voice is commenting on it. Providing an opinion. Setting us up for events to follow. What is important about the voice-over isn’t so much what is being said, but who is saying it. That little revelation is given in the very last line of the film, and provides a kicker of a punch-line.

Verdict

Filled with colourful, larger-than-life characters inhabited by some of the best character actors around, Perrier’s Bounty is a class act. Great dialogue, good acting and a solid soundtrack make this a pleasure to watch. Even the narration has a point to it.

8 out of 10 (MikeOutWest)

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