The Guard
THE GUARDÂ (18)
D: John Michael McDonagh
Studio Canal/Element Pictures/Irish Film
Board/Reprisal/Crescendo (Chris Clark, Flora Fernandez-Marengo, Ed Guiney & Andrew Lowe)
Ireland 🇮🇪 2011
92 mins
Crime/Comedy
W: John Michael McDonagh
DP: Larry Smith
Ed: Chris Gill
Mus: Calexico
Brendan Gleeson (Sgt. Gerry Boyle), Don
Cheadle (Agent Wendell Everett), Mark Strong (Clive Cornell), Liam Cunningham (Francis Sheehy-Skeffington), Fionnula Flanagan (Eileen Boyle)
A
mismatched cop caper with a twist.Â
In rural Ireland, Brendan Gleeson plays one of the Irish
guard, a hard-drinking, heavy-cursing, prostitute-shagging policeman who speaks his mind, even if some of his views cross the borders if casual racism.Â
Investigating a drug trafficking operation, he is partnered
with American FBI agent Don Cheadle, who is the fish-out-of-water in this darkly comic thriller.
Had American shores produced this, the focus would have been
on Cheadle's character, but Gleeson is without doubt the star of the show here, with an excellent central performance.
7/10
