The GUARD

“The GUARD” (Brendan Gleeson, Don Cheadle & Mark Strong)

Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) is the Archie Bunker of Irish cops; he routinely spouts out racial insults, but in a way that makes you laugh – You know he’s just saying them for shock value and always raises his eyebrows with a quizzical, ‘Did I say something wrong?’ expression.
The main reason Brendan Gleeson makes Boyle acceptable is that you soon discover Gerry isn’t exactly a racist because he hates EVERYBODY no matter what color their skin happens to be. Which should make him a humanist, but somehow it doesn’t work THAT way...
The body of an unknown man is found in an abandoned apartment with a bullet hole in his forehead, passages from the bible stuffed into his mouth and the number ‘5 ½’ written on the wall in the victim’s blood, ala ‘Helter Skelter’.
The chief suspect is shown on video surveillance knocking the then living corpse out in a bar fight the previous evening. But the suspect, though a definite hot head with violent tendencies has an alibi for the rest of the evening and is released.
When American FBI agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) arrives to brief the local law enforcement officials about a quartet of drug smugglers who are planning a 500 million (“That’s half a billion,” someone always has to add) heroin shipment in Ireland, Sgt. Boyle interrupts the briefing with racial comments that make it seem as though he wants to be dismissed for insubordination by his superiors. Just when Agent Everett has had enough of Boyle’s inappropriate behavior, Gerry informs the FBI man that one of his heroin smugglers was found in an apartment building with a bullet in his head...

Things get even rockier between the pair when Boyle informs ‘Wendell’ that he’ll get started on the case in two days as tomorrow is his day off.
At one point Wendell tells Gerry, “I don’t know if you’re the dumbest cop I’ve ever met – or the smartest.
Gleeson & Cheadle play well off of one another, but this is Gleeson’s baby from start to finish. The serious plot of two officers of the law trying to track down a trio of drug smugglers that will kill anyone that crosses them isn’t taken all that seriously by the script – In fact, oftentimes, the bad guys are just as funny as the good guys – which made them hard to dislike.
Mark Strong plays another mega-villain with relish as Clive, the no nonsense member of the drug smuggling ring. & pretty Katarina Cas plays Gabriela, the wife of Gerry’s missing partner, Aidan. Gabriela’s relationship with her husband is as unorthodox as the rest of the film and despite the many odd characters & situations, ‘The Guard’ pulls you in and holds your interest.
But again, everyone bows to Gleeson here; Gerry, an unmarried, weary policeman uses ‘escorts’ on a regular basis and so he is constantly fondling his privates as though he has unwelcome guests in his pubic region. One of the more memorable scenes comes when Boyle uses his itching problem to his advantage after being placed into a dangerous situation.
There are no wasted scenes in ‘The Guard’, the story is compelled forward at a good pace leading up to the climax when Gerry & Wendell find themselves going up against an entire drug cartel without any backup. Although it is easy to tell that this production is ‘low budget’ – the entire production isn’t as slick as a ‘Hollywood’ film, the soundtrack sounds like someone brought in a bunch of old vinyl records and slapped them on the turntable when a musical interlude was necessary, but I thoroughly enjoyed ‘The Guard’ and the main reason was Brendan Gleeson’s performance. Mock me if you will, but I’d say he should get a best actor nomination because this is my favorite performance of the year so far...

**I want to apologize to anyone that reads my reviews - I have been having trouble getting into my Google account lately, which is why my blogs have been so sporadic of late. If you know of anyone that likes films & might enjoy reading my sarcastic ramblings, please invite them to Google 'Terry's Movie Reviews', just in case
they're thinking of dropping my account due to lack of interest! THANKS!**