The Guard

Starring: Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle, Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham

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.

Review:

The Guard is an impressive directorial debut from screenwriter John Michael McDonagh. His canny screenplay is brought to life through impressive performances by a top quality cast.

Most movies that Brendan Gleeson appears in are almost always the better for it, and The Guard is another example of this. Gleeson easily puts the ever reliable Don Cheadle in the shade during their exchanges, although Cheadle is able to reclaim a little of what we’d expect from him during the movie’s final action scene.

That’s not to say that Cheadle’s performance is redundant but he puts in a mainly quiet workmanlike performance as the FBI agent in a strange land, who has a clear purpose and does a good job of portraying Wendell Everett opposite Gleeson’s Gerry Boyle. The thing is, the character of Gerry Boyle is so well written and observed that although the character of Everett is a great foil it’s not capitalised on enough, in my view. The only downside for me was that I was expecting a variant on the Beverly Hills Cop scenario; this time a quiet professional FBI agent forced to work alongside a foul mouthed, confrontational police officer. This is what the marketing implies rather than a preconception that I solely invented. It didn’t go the way that I thought it would but doesn’t make it any less of a film.

Whilst I enjoyed the performances of the “bad guys”; Liam Cunningham, Mark Strong, and David Wilmot, they came across as stereotypes that we’ve seen before in a movie that excels because of the richness of the characters. Mark Strong, in particular, is hideously underused. Fionnulla Flanagan puts in a warm performance as Gerry’s Mum and provides a touching insight into Gerry’s background. Slovenian actress Katerina Kas gets some memorable screen time as the wife of Gerry’s colleague.

For a rare occasion, The Guard is a film that is just far too short. I felt short-changed because I wanted to see more of Gerry, hear more of his antics and witness more situations with him in them. The climatic shoot-out generates little tension because there is something larger than life about Gerry Boyle.

Perhaps this is deliberate but I think it might just be inexperience. Whilst the final denouement is ambiguous, it wouldn’t be much of a guess that Boyle does in fact survive, although we’re not shown. I hope to see more adventures of Gerry Boyle.

The Guard is all about moments for me: An example being the wonderful exchange between Boyle and Eugene (Played by Michael Og Lane) when Boyle unearths a partially buried cache of weapons. Og Lane could well be the next Timothy Turgoose, with his unusual looks and forthright attitude.

Larry Smith’s cinematography is well represented on this Blu-ray, with a mix of polished scenic shots, of Galway, to stylized framing in the interior locations. The score, by Calexico, is unobtrusive and, at times, brings memories of spaghetti westerns and Shane Meadow’s Once Upon a Time in the Midlands.

The extras include some interesting deleted/extended scenes which add a little extra comedy.

Summary:

Whilst it has been well recorded that John Michael McDonagh is the brother of Martin McDonagh, who brought us the excellent In Bruges, I do feel it’s unfair to compare at this stage of his career. I do, however, expect some great material from John Michael McDonagh in the future. He’s shown with The Guard that he is more than capable of matching his brother in the future.

7 out of 10 (Wayfarer)

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