Review: The Guard (15) ****

WRITTEN and directed by John Michael McDonough, brother of Martin McDonough who wrote and directed the terrific In Bruges, The Guard offers more of the same brand of skewed Irish whimsy and surreality.

Brendan Gleeson is Gerry Boyle, the titular Garda police sergeant in a quiet Connemara backwater, who finds himself embroiled in a drug trafficking operation of gargantuan proportions. Partnered with high-flying FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) he must unravel the threads of the plot, locate the villains and keep his job in the face of meddling by his superiors.

But The Guard is no slow-moving wannabe thriller set in Ireland with Stateside pretensions. Instead it centres on an unconventional, unpredictable cop with a dying mother, a missing colleague, and a predilection for hookers.

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McDonough presents the Garda as a bunch of corrupt dimbulbs susceptible to bribes by the trio of philosophising drug peddlers led by Liam Cunningham. The remaining partners in this darkly comic triumvirate are David Wilmot and Mark Strong, the latter, like Gleeson, revelling in the knife-sharp salty dialogue.

From its opening as Boyle climbs into his uniform, The Guard resembles an Irish Western.

Gerry may be just a modest police sergeant with a rural beat but, in effect, he’s the sheriff of this one-horse town and won’t stand for any nonsense. And that includes an international attempt to land $5 billion worth of drugs on his doorstep.

Brendan Gleeson can play confrontational and awkward characters in his sleep. Give him the kind of script penned by the McDonoughs – be it John Michael or Martin – and he delivers a performance that is as much heart-rending as it is hilarious.

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Like In Bruges and John Crowley’s 2003 hit Intermission, this has cult movie written all over it. Cheadle (who also executive produced) gives up the screen to Gleeson, seemingly content to play support to the big man. And it works, with Gleeson’s rumpled charm serving to underline the loneliness of a man who’s achieved too little and aspires to so much.

High Noon with a Gaelic twist, this is well worth seeking out.