The Guard

A shipload of cocaine worth $500Million 'Street Value' is coming into Ireland, and the only people who can stop it is Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) and FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle).

Wendell is a straight laced privileged guy on a mission. Gerry is an irreverent drug-doing whore-doing racist-commenting loudmouth cop. So Wendell takes him as an idiot at first. But it's soon obvious to Wendell that Gerry is the smartest guy in the room and he knows all the local players.

Brendan Gleeson has created one of the funniest raunchiest cop character ever. Where else are you going can dialog like this?

"I'm old enough to be your father."

"Well, you can think about that while you're f**king us, if that turns you on."

I must take issue with the bobbowhite review.

As a citizen of Ireland I can safely say that this film is easy to understand and accents should not be adjusted just so that USA folk can follow.

If an English MP can find the film enjoyable and recommend it to her 35,000+ twitter followers, then no-one should complain.

The scenery is superb.

The characters just right for the West of Ireland as I remember it.

The whole scope of the current Irish populace is contained in the film and age old attitudes subtly dealt with.

Greetings again from the darkness. Writer/Director John Michael McDonagh is the brother of Martin McDonagh, who brought us the excellent In Bruges (which also starred Brendan Gleeson). I figured it best to say that upfront because there is no way to avoid comparisons of the two films. Clearly these men grew up in the same house and were trained in a brilliant method of writing dialogue.

Brendan Gleeson delivers a powerful and hilarious performance as a local cop (Garda) in rural Ireland. His Sgt Gerry Boyle is quite an enigma - he gets along great with locals, yet struggles to fit into society. This is never more apparent than when FBI Agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) hits town on a drug smuggling investigation. The key to their relationship is crystallized at the moment an exasperated Agent Everett says to Boyle, 'I can't tell if you are really smart or really dumb'. Of course, I am paraphrasing because the F-word gets literally worn out in this movie. There aren't many lines I can actually quote in print. But the word rolls off Gleeson's tongue as if it's a work of art ... especially in conversation with his ailing mother, played well by the always terrific Fionnula Flanagan.

The international drug smugglers being chased are a trio led by Liam Cunningham and the always interesting Mark Strong. The endless rips, insults and jokes are fired rapidly at Americans, Brits and anyone unfortunate enough to hail from Dublin. Boyle uses his Irish background as a crutch for his racism and insensitivity. But he leaves no doubt about his expertise as a cop. Heck he even recognizes the importance of some 9 year old kid riding around on a pink bicycle. That's just another example of the off-center approach to story telling offered by McDonagh.

If you are a fan of In Bruges, Snatch, or Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, I think you will enjoy this one. It falls just short of that level, but not by much. Gleeson is outstanding and the story is simple enough, yet with plenty of twist, turns and hilarity.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle is a rather unconventional police officer – and perhaps not as effective as he could be. When the FBI trace major cocaine players to his district, Boyle is surprised to find that none of them are black or Mexican, but ends up assisting FBI agent Wendell Everett who, for his money, cannot work out if Boyle is really smart or really dumb.

The scenario with The Guard makes it sound like a standard fish out of water tale (with Everett being the fish) or another buddy-cop movie where two conflicting or bickering partners come together to solve the case. True, it has things in common with this genre in its dialogue and gun-fire, but this film is much more like someone took such a genre film and handed the script to the Cohen brothers and Graham Linehan to work on. The plotting is pretty straightforward here but it is the comedy that drives it. Those looking for the easy broad laughs suggested by the trailer might be disappointed because the film is funny because it has great characters and dialogue that is infuse with a wonderful Irish melancholy. Free of sentiment, the film is funnier for it because it is just so wonderfully odd.

The heart of the film is Brendan Gleeson and he owns it. He gets his character just right and has great comic timing and delivery, making the most of the dialogue which is wonderfully shocking and funny throughout. Writer and director McDonagh did an interview recently where he was acerbic and a little too honest about his feelings about his younger brother's success, and he uses this dark edge well in his writing, as well as mixing in visual and musical references to good effect; his script is as strong when it comes to one-liner jokes as it is in regards the brutal humour of his characters unsentimental realism. I'm not sure how they got Don Cheadle on board, but he is pretty good and to his credit the Hollywood star knows that he is supporting Gleeson, which he does. The supporting cast has Cunningham and Strong as philosophising drug dealers and they are as good as the entire supporting cast because the script is great for all the characters.

Overall, The Guard is a hard film to pigeonhole because while it is essentially a mismatched cop partner comedy, it is infused with a real oddness and dry Irish no-nonsense humour that works really well. Gleeson loves every minute of it and dominates the film while everyone wisely plays their part to support him in his lead role. McDonagh does a great job and The Guard will more than help him with his sibling rivalry.

"The Guard" is definitely a movie to recommend. Its beautiful simplicity, provoking colors and incredibly witty lines simply make this a small masterpiece. I haven't expected a thing, but it does seem that this directorial surname becomes something to be kept close within the radar.

It has somewhat of that Warhal-like touch to it within the play of multiple strong colors and nuances, where it is visually provoking and satisfying, easy to relate and almost as easy to touch. Along with remarkable scenery and those absolutely sets details, the roles are accordingly brilliant.

Brendan is more than expectedly good and from my point of view, this might just be his best role so far (though all are excellent). The easiness and the flow make the movie a cake one swallows easily. Though grim at all times, it puts a big smile on a face from the first moment.

Unpretentious and fresh, it has a tiny nuance of early '90 movies such as "Pulp Fiction", but unlike others, the directing made it look absolutely different. It is unpredictable at all times, yet one keeps waiting for Gleeson's next line. Probably one of my favorites for some time. Will watch again, definitely.

As for the language, I have to agree with the issue - English is not my native language but it was so awful trying to watch it with those unnatural subs in English. It took half of the fun and I simply turned it off and enjoyed it, understanding it easily. Being so lost in translation, it certainly will not be as great as it really is - even one line lost is too much for such a screenplay.

I'm not an Irish, right. Yet I could identify easily with the characters and feel the ease. As for this year's movies I've seen so far, this was the biggest surprise and biggest satisfaction.

With simple soundtrack which turns out fully unexpected towards the very end - much of a "Mexican standout", "The Guard" is truly a rewarding movie and a hope that there are still ways to make fresh ones to enjoy without having to compare or predict.