The Irish have a notorious temperament and this is clearly
evident in John Michael McDonagh's The
Guard. Brendan Gleeson plays Sergeant Gerry Boyle, a policeman who has
certain peculiarities and a lax view of vice. He protects a sleepy Irish town
when a group of international drug dealers decide to use its port to ship large
amounts of narcotics. Enter Wendell Everett, a Yankee from the FBI, a Rhodes
scholar, and a privileged man who is sent to track down the drug dealers.
On the surface The
Guard appears to be the usual fish out of water buddy cop film. But do not be fooled. In actuality it is a look at how even
the most vulnerable of places can still have one man who is unwilling to sell
his code of ethics.
Gleeson's character is not unlike the hit man he played in
Martin McDonagh's In Bruges. Boyle is
crude, a bit racist, and yet you empathize with him for having to stand up to
crime when his only other options are to take a bribe or be killed.
The film is a bit slow at times, and the dialect and
speaking style of the Irish are occasionally hard to decipher. The bulk of the
film focuses on the back and forth bickering of Boyle and Everett. The film would have worked better had
there been a stronger focus on the drug dealers, especially Strong's Clive
Cornell.
In addition, the film is weakest when exploring the thin
relationship between Boyle and his mother. The scenes involving the two only serve as a filler for the
film, resulting in nothing when it comes to the overall, big picture story.
Sweeping shots of scenery showcase a remarkable beauty that backdrops
the violence and crime that takes place in the small town. Gleeson and Cheadle
are a regular Abbott and Costello, and even though the film doesn't stray too far
from that format, it is still a better offer than many American films of this
genre.
