THE GUARD - A movie review -
So this odd buddy/cop movie set In The West of Ireland has several things in common with IN BRUGES, another quirky indie European movie I found amazing. They both star the saggy, sad/wise yet charismatic Brendan Gleeson, they both mix crazy black humor and pathos, and they both were written and directed by a McDonagh. THE GUARD was written and directed by John Michael McDonagh, the older brother of Christopher McDonagh (IN BRUGES). Everyone says it's the role of a lifetime for Gleeson, who's had some awesome roles already (Mad Eye Moody is nothing compared to some of his other work), and I expect to see a BAFTA nomination if not an Oscar nod for it.
Gleeson is a cop in Connemara, and part of the fun of the story is how you see him do plentiful actions that cast him as corrupt and bad, including openly racist baiting comments, but by about half-way through, you see those for quirks and how he deals with the reality of life and politics around him. We're given Don Cheadle as a cultured FBI man there to chase down some drug smugglers who despises Gerry Boyle from the moment Boyle opens his yap. Yet part of the FBI Investigator Everett's arc, and a smart way of showing us how smart he is, is that he also sees through the off-putting guff and doesn't identify the words with the man. Which is good because stuff is twisty and turny, and the two officers work well together ultimately.
That's LOST's Fionnula Flanagan playing the tart, wise-cracking mom of Boyle in a role that does a great deal to humanize the big dyspeptic cop and keep his situation poignant. Lots of good dialog, with things not said, that makes a man dealing with his nursing-home-living mom have just as much tension and conflict as the cops and murders and drug smuggling. Some great writing and acting there!
And even good bad guys! These are guys who have attitudes, arch gestures and poses, who play word games about philosophers, etc. The gun-crazy one who does all the killing argues with the others at one point: "I'm NOT a psychopath. I'm a sociopath!" Mark Strong, who always seems like a bad guy to me even when he's supposed to be sympathetic (hello, the Kate Beckinsale version of EMMA), is an arrogant Brit criminal, making his disdain for the Irish known, and they loath him too. His sighs about the "class of people you have to deal with in this job" gets a great pay-off in the end with his final line.
Gleeson is a cop in Connemara, and part of the fun of the story is how you see him do plentiful actions that cast him as corrupt and bad, including openly racist baiting comments, but by about half-way through, you see those for quirks and how he deals with the reality of life and politics around him. We're given Don Cheadle as a cultured FBI man there to chase down some drug smugglers who despises Gerry Boyle from the moment Boyle opens his yap. Yet part of the FBI Investigator Everett's arc, and a smart way of showing us how smart he is, is that he also sees through the off-putting guff and doesn't identify the words with the man. Which is good because stuff is twisty and turny, and the two officers work well together ultimately.
That's LOST's Fionnula Flanagan playing the tart, wise-cracking mom of Boyle in a role that does a great deal to humanize the big dyspeptic cop and keep his situation poignant. Lots of good dialog, with things not said, that makes a man dealing with his nursing-home-living mom have just as much tension and conflict as the cops and murders and drug smuggling. Some great writing and acting there!
And even good bad guys! These are guys who have attitudes, arch gestures and poses, who play word games about philosophers, etc. The gun-crazy one who does all the killing argues with the others at one point: "I'm NOT a psychopath. I'm a sociopath!" Mark Strong, who always seems like a bad guy to me even when he's supposed to be sympathetic (hello, the Kate Beckinsale version of EMMA), is an arrogant Brit criminal, making his disdain for the Irish known, and they loath him too. His sighs about the "class of people you have to deal with in this job" gets a great pay-off in the end with his final line.