Strong coarse language and violence

Ireland, 2011
Director: John McDonagh
Featuring: Brendan Gleeson, David Wilmot, Don Cheadle, Fionnul Flanagan, Mark Strong
Running time: 96 minutes

The Guard is set in Ireland’s western city of Galway with grey skies and a gloomy mood that provide the backdrop for a gripping adult potboiler brimming with black comedy. The film is anchored by a towering central performance from Brendan Gleeson who featured in “In Bruges”( LFS June 2009) and plays Sergeant Gerry Doyle, a uniform “garda”.

On the beat, Doyle is a tough, belligerent, whoring brute who drinks and pops the odd pill he confiscates from crooks. He’s a bad cop, to be sure, to be sure, but he’s also a very clever one and his arrogant demeanour suggests he hides more experience and wisdom than he lets on – or his rank suggests - and in his own way he keeps his local town peaceful. However, straight arrow FBI agent Wendell Everett, an African American Rhodes scholar arrives in town and announces that Galway is to be the unlikely port for a huge heroin haul and wants to use the knowledge and expertise of the local authorities to catch the perpetrators. Everett and Doyle form an uneasy bond. One a consummate professional, the other politically incorrect and with no concern for anyone other than himself. Much of the charm in The Guard comes from their odd couple routine with a bit of good cop/bad cop routine for good measure. The film is more a modern western with Doyle as the flawed sheriff knowing he must face the feared gang of killers riding into town with machine guns rather than Colts.

The Irish accents are heavy and may require concentration to get all the dialogue!

Original reviews: Shannon Harvey, The West Australian; Mathew Toomey, ABC radio Brisbane. Compiled by Robin Claxton