The Guard - Ein Ire sieht schwarz

Despite the fact that I live in a bustling metropolis, all of the theaters that show smaller films are somewhere between 30 and 50 miles away. In "Dallas Traffic Time", that translates to somewhere between 90 minutes and 16 days. As a result, I don't get time to see many of these films until they come to DVD, if at all. In my experience, art house films are often the most difficult to write about and even more difficult to properly judge, particularly in the summer. When almost everything I've watched in the last three months has involved superheroes, aliens, or jokes related to bodily functions, I have a tough time transitioning to more mature and cinematic endeavors. So it is with "The Guard, a film entirely unlike anything else I saw this summer.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is an off-the-wall, somewhat crotchety veteran police officer who patrols a small Irish town. Shortly after beginning an investigation into a peculiar murder, Boyle discovers that his case is related to a major drug ring that is currently being hunted by FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle). As straight-laced as they come, Everett is an odd pair for Boyle but the two are forced to work together to take down the cartel. When the case pulls Boyle in deeper than he would have ever imagined he is forced to reexamine his life's work and turn himself into an unlikely hero.

If that synopsis makes "The Guard" sound wholly serious, bear in mind that it is completely and totally a comedy. A dark comedy to be sure but a comedy nonetheless. If you've ever wondered what "Hot Fuzz" would be like if it was subtle and less over-the-top, "The Guard" fits the bill. This is writer/director John Michael McDonagh's first full length film but I would never have guessed it if not for the magic of IMDb. It is a witty, well-written film that makes its tone clear from the first scene. The pacing isn't exactly what I would call slow but instead calculatedly casual; it knows where it intends to go and it makes its way with balanced determination. This is a film that knows its own identity and doesn't stray from the dark comedy path more than a time or two. Its humor is smart and lively. Even with the thick accents (which probably caused me to miss a joke or two) "The Guard" is filled with exquisite dialogue and understated jokes that brought more laughs than anything from all but the very best big budget comedies this year has brought.

The plot of "The Guard" is simple but refined and that pushes all of the attention onto the characters and the actors who portray them. Cheadle is a solid straight man and as he always does, he makes the absolute most of every scene he is given. As one of the ringleaders of the drug ring, Mark Strong's character is straight out of a Guy Ritchie film, a role Strong is great at playing. Please Mr. Strong: stick to these films and stay away from popcorn crap like "Green Lantern." But despite all of the excellent actors around him, "The Guard" is all about Gleeson. His work in 2008's "In Bruges" (coincidentally directed by McDonagh's brother Martin) finally brought him the attention he deserves, but Gleeson has always been a favorite of mine, a magnificent actor who never fails to impress no matter how little screen time he is given. Boyle is a without a doubt a curmudgeon (and a slightly racist one at that) but Gleeson makes him exceedingly likable. He is a wild card, the type of guy who does the right thing when you're absolutely sure he's going to continue to disgrace himself and Gleeson pulls this off perfectly. Moreover, he once again exhibits the brilliant comedic timing that has made him one of the best and most versatile actors that Ireland has to offer. I'm not saying it's his best performance but rather another in a long string of quality portrayals that illustrate just how undervalued this guy really is.

Fun, intelligent, and genuinely hilarious, "The Guard" is an excellent departure from my typical fare this time of year. I've made no bones about the fact that I really like summer blockbusters. I love them, in fact. But when a movie like "The Guard" comes along in the midst of the "Conan the Barbarians" of the world, it serves as an incredibly refreshing reminder of what we have to hope for in the coming months.

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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.

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.

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."

Something there is that is charming about films set in Ireland with Irish characters speaking in beautiful brogue and THE GUARD fits into that category very comfortably. Written and directed by John Michael McDonagh this is a funny, fast-paced film that manages to poke fun at many points of bigotry (anti-American, racism, the gay lifestyle, etc) in a manner that keeps the comedy rolling. In many ways the film is comparable to the film IN BRUGES, if that helps the reader to categorize in a positive way.

Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleason) is a small-town Irish cop in Western Ireland 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 (Don Cheadle, in a role that allows him to display his comedic gifts) to his door. Boyle's partner, a gay man Aidan McBride (Rory Keenan), the brunt of many of Boyle's jokes, is shot while making a traffic arrest by the drug smuggling gang (Mark Strong, Liam Cunningham, Owen Sharpe, Michael Og Lane) which leaves the cantankerous Boyle to align with the American black FBI agent Everett to solve the case. What begins as a fiction filled alignment ends up as a touching friendship.

McConagh's writing and direction are as fine as they come for films of this sort. It will be necessary for most viewers to turn on the subtitles to understand the brogue (the few Gaelic passages are not translated!). The cast, from the major roles to the minor ones (especially the extraordinarily beautiful Katarina Cas) including Laurence Kinlan and Fionnula Flanagan, is superb. This is a very fine comedy well worth the attention of a very wide audience!

Grady Harp