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“Good to go,” an Irish drug smuggler remarks as the plan comes together for a big delivery. His English colleague derisively remarks, “I f**king hate that. Americanisms. ‘Good to go’!” It’s hard not to read small moments like this as a bit of self-reference on the part of John Michael McDonagh, as the film takes every opportunity to reflect on the Irish fascination and digestion of American pop culture, as contrasted against the somewhat unique national character. Sparkling with witty dialogue and packed with sharply-observed commentaries on Ireland and its relationship with our bigger Atlantic cousin, The Guard is a clever little film that is well worth your time.

Once upon a time in the West...

In many ways, the movie feels like a seventies American cop thriller filtered through our distinctively Irish viewpoint. With heavy saturation of bright colours (even at night time) adding a stylised feel to the movie, and soundtrack drawing on the spaghetti Westerns of the period, McDonagh’s film consciously evokes those old American stories about an unconventional hero playing by his own rules in a system growing indifferent to the suffering of others. Sometimes that hero was a cowboy on the open plains, or a detective on the mean streets, but here it’s Sergeant Gerry Boyle in the wilds of Galway. You could insert some cheap joke about Ireland getting hand-me-downs from American pop culture forty years too late, but the movie is never mean enough to suggest it outright. If anything, it’s downright affectionate.

“You know,” FBI Agent Wendell Everett, the Rhodes scholar partnered with Boyle to foil an international drug ring, observes, “I can’t tell if you’re really motherf**king smart, or really motherf**king stupid.” Boyle replies with a wise smile and a small nod. He isn’t going to confirm it one way or another. This is Boyle, the man who has his own idea of the American experience drawn from pulpy crime stories and television – an image so concrete that he can assert Everett grew up in “the Projects” (when the FBI Agent had a very “privileged” upbringing). Boyle is a man so obsessed with America that his only trip over was a visit to Disneyworld. By himself. “I got my picture taken with Goofy,” he boasts. “He’s my favourite.” When Boyle wants to foil a missing person’s report, he wonders aloud, “What do they call it on television?” When he confirms it’s an APB, he remarks a little mournfully, “You don’t hear that too much any more.”

Raising the bar...

The film reflects on Boyle’s fascination and suggests it’s something that we Irish share as a culture. A hilarious confrontation unfolds in Eddie Rockets. For those unfamiliar, Eddie Rockets is an Irish-run franchise restaurant based around those American fifties diners. As a mission briefing descends into the old rivalry between Dublin and the rest of the country, the supervisor appeals to his officers’ sense of embarrassment before their guest, “Not in front of the American!” Clive, the drug runners’ right-hand man, is incredibly frustrated when the Irish detectives he’s bribing ask, “Is it all here?” He proceeds to tear them apart for mindlessly echoing every money exchange they’ve ever seen in cinema, observing that it would be pointless to bribe them if the money wasn’t all there. Local residents, obviously keen followers of Criminal Minds, ask repeatedly if Everett is a member of the “Behavioural Sciences Unit” and quickly lose interest when he isn’t.

It would be easy to make this a mockery of Irish fascination with American pop culture – to make cheap shots at the expense of Boyle, a man so in love with Americana he spends his mornings playing first-person shooters – but it’s to McDonagh’s credit that he doesn’t. Boyle is well-read, expressing his considered opinion on Russian writers. His unorthodox methods of policing obviously work quite well, as he has peaceful and amicable relations with the Republican groups in the area, and he’s respected by the children in the area. Even the drug dealers, for all their Americanisms, are introduced having a discourse on foreign philosophers. The key suggestion is that these local residents are somewhat smarter than they appear – with Boyle even pointing out that the local Gaelic speakers could probably speak English, but were just obfuscating Everett with their native tongue.

Steady Eddie...

In fact, it’s FBI Agent Wendell Everett, the Rhodes scholar and stylish American FBI agent, who comes out of this looking a little worse. After all, an earlier scene with the pair reveals that Boyle has had the common courtesy to research his new partner. In contrast, Everett doesn’t extend the same respect to his new colleague, casually dismissing some of Boyle’s larger-than-life claims as “bullsh!t”, when, as a native points out, they should be easy enough to verify if he wanted. Hell, he could probably even look them up on his blackberry, if he were bothered.

The movie works primarily because of Gleeson. The supporting cast is superb (from Mark Strong to Liam Cunningham to Fionnula Flanagan to Don Cheadle), but the real star of the show, and the actor who carries the weight of the film on his shoulders, is Brendan Gleeson in the role of Gerry Boyle. It’s a nice portrayal, which manages to efficiently walk the line between serious and comedic, and the film is so successful because Gleeson gets us to believe in Boyle, and to respect him. Gleeson has a long history of solid leading and supporting roles behind him, and I think that this might actually be his best role to date. And I don’t say that lightly.

Copping a feel...

The Guard is a great little Irish film, with a wonderful Irish sensibility. It’s charming enough that it can get away with several one-liners that could easily cause, to quote Everett, “an international incident”, but it also works as an affectionate homage to those old-style man-against-the-world films that American cinema used to turn out like clockwork, but don’t seem to do so frequently these days. It might not be quite as perfect as In Bruges, but it’s a damn fine little film.

Filed under: Non-Review Reviews | Tagged: brendan gleeson, buddy cop film, buddy film, comedy, don cheadle, Eddie Rockets, Federal Bureau of Investigation, films, Fionnula Flanagan, Ireland, irish cinema, john mcdonagh, liam cunningham, mark strong, Movies, non-review review, review, the guard, United States |