The Guard

2011


Director John Michael McDonagh

 If Arthur Mathews and Graham Lineham, co-creators of the eye-wateringly hilarious Father Ted, sat down with Kick-Ass scribe Matthew Vaughan to write a movie script, there is a good chance that it would end up looking something like this. The Guard is an unashamedly un-PC, blacker than the blackest black of comedies that hints at every one of its gasp-worthy lines with a sly, winking eye and coy, nodding head, and then goes ahead and says something far worse, but far, far funnier.

The action takes place in Connemara; where unconventional - to put it lightly - policeman Gerry Boyle joins forces with FBI agent Wendell Everett in pursuit of a trio of drug smugglers who have arrived on the scene with murderous results.

Nothing about The Guard sounds terribly attractive; an unorthodox policemen, a fish-out-of-water agent, drugs, guns … stop me if you think you’ve heard any of this before. But what you haven’t heard before is of any of those things in conjunction with a script written by John Michael McDonagh. If the name sounds familiar, then that probably means you’ve seen the fantastic In Bruges from 2008, penned and directed by Martin McDonagh. Yep, John’s little brother. And brothers with the same sense of humour. Hot Fuzz might be closest in actual story to The Guard, but it’s In Bruges which is nearest in tone. Both contain some truly entertaining action sequences, but there’s nothing that quite compares to two characters just talking. That was to be expected of Martin McDonagh considering his illustrious history in Irish theatre, but his brother is probably best known for scripting the uninspiring 2003 Heath Ledger and Orlando Bloom historical drama Ned Kelly. But the talent runs in the family it seems. John Michael McDonagh’s script is every bit as ridiculous, bombastic, dry, witty, dark, biting and snortingly funny as In Bruges, and, in certain places, even more so.

The film was always onto a winner with the casting of the unsung, underrated, but always superb Brendan Gleeson as Boyle. He’s known to most people for his thirty-second cameos as Mad-Eye Moody in the Harry Potter series, but Gleeson has made a habit of hijacking every film - even every scene - he’s in; whether it’s something worthy of his talents like Danny Boyle’s 28 Days Later, something that could have used him better like Ridley Scott’s Kingdom of Heaven, or something camper than a row of tents such as Wolfgang Peterson’s Troy. And he shines again here. In Bruges saw he and Colin Farrell create one of the most memorable double-acts in recent cinematic history, and there’s another attempt in The Guard with Don Cheadle’s FBI agent. The relationship between the clean-cut, straight-laced American and the pudgy, unpredictable, and, oh yeah, quite blatantly racist Boyle is thoroughly entertaining, but that might suggest that when he is away from his verbal sparring partner, Boyle fizzles out. Not so. It doesn’t matter who he is with - if anyone - he is brilliant no matter the situation. A truly great creation.

But like most comedies of this ilk, it isn’t only Boyle who boggles the mind; everyone here is an idiot, with the exception, of course, of Cheadle’s Everett, who becomes our wide-eyes, our raised eyebrows and our open, gaping mouths, as Sergeant Boyle asks quite openly in one scene, “I thought only black fellas were drug dealers?” There Boyle’s young partner, played by Rory Keenan, who succeeds in doing a wonderful impression of Father Ted’s Father Dougal in one interrogation scene in particular.

On the downside, the film’s three antagonists are rather hit-and-miss. Liam Cunningham, David Wilmot and Mark Strong (playing yet another bloody villain!) fill these wicked shoes with the kind of fast-talking, wise-cracking banter common in cinematic goons, and most of the time it’s just fine, but occasionally with Strong’s hoodlum it becomes apparent that writing for Cockneys - as In Bruges suffered from with brother Martin’s efforts with Ralph Fiennes - might not be the McDonagh’s strong suit.

But if that’s the only gripe, and an extremely minor one at that, it’s rather telling of just how good a film The Guard is. Don’t think that this is simply a play-cum-film either due to the praise given to the dialogue. This is a film in every sense of the word. McDonagh knows exactly what he’s doing with the camera, whether framing shots of a lonely Boyle in a bar, or setting up for the final, Wild West-style shootout, everything is tremendously engaging.

Undoubtedly one of the funniest and most consistently entertaining films of the year, The Guard is a real triumph for someone so new to the world of directing, and we can only hope that the brothers McDonagh continue in this rich vein of form. Of maybe they have a sister…

**** ½ / *****

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