Moosey
10-Sep-2011, 11:34 PM
Review of "The Guard" (2011)
by Moosey
An interesting "word of mouth" hit that gained great acclaim at this year's Cannes film festival, the Guard is a nicely judged, blackly comic character piece that exists to give Brendan Gleeson the chance to deliver some dry wit with a devilish gleam in his eye.
Gleeson plays Sgt Gerry Boyle, a smart but apparently cynical, lazy and unorthodox policeman in rural Galway. Fond of pretty much all the vices, he is irritated to learn that an international drugs cartel have organised a big delivery nearby, attracting the attention of the FBI.
More interesting than the story, however, are the amusingly scripted characters, many of whom are simply foils for Boyle's fouth mouth or surprising charm. The interactions between Boyle and Don Cheadle's straight-laced FBI agent or between the three drug dealers who are in Galway to set up the shipment are sharp and entertaining, while the backstory between Gleeson's character and his mother is movingly sad without being too sentimental.
Although The Guard isn't "raucously funny" as the American poster proclaims, it's got a wry, foul-mouthed and subtly silly sense of humour that had the audience in my screening laughing throughout. Some excellent "set piece" scenes and a movie-stealing lead performance from Mr Gleeson make this well worth seeing.
I'll probably get the DVD when it comes out.
4 (with some decimal points, but I can't quite deciede how many) out of 5.
by Moosey
An interesting "word of mouth" hit that gained great acclaim at this year's Cannes film festival, the Guard is a nicely judged, blackly comic character piece that exists to give Brendan Gleeson the chance to deliver some dry wit with a devilish gleam in his eye.
Gleeson plays Sgt Gerry Boyle, a smart but apparently cynical, lazy and unorthodox policeman in rural Galway. Fond of pretty much all the vices, he is irritated to learn that an international drugs cartel have organised a big delivery nearby, attracting the attention of the FBI.
More interesting than the story, however, are the amusingly scripted characters, many of whom are simply foils for Boyle's fouth mouth or surprising charm. The interactions between Boyle and Don Cheadle's straight-laced FBI agent or between the three drug dealers who are in Galway to set up the shipment are sharp and entertaining, while the backstory between Gleeson's character and his mother is movingly sad without being too sentimental.
Although The Guard isn't "raucously funny" as the American poster proclaims, it's got a wry, foul-mouthed and subtly silly sense of humour that had the audience in my screening laughing throughout. Some excellent "set piece" scenes and a movie-stealing lead performance from Mr Gleeson make this well worth seeing.
I'll probably get the DVD when it comes out.
4 (with some decimal points, but I can't quite deciede how many) out of 5.