The GuardAt one point in The Guard, FBI Agent Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle) and Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) are chatting in the police car, both of them mutually investigating an international drug trafficking ring and other associated crimes, and Boyle has said something yet again to shock or otherwise befuddle Everett, who replies that he doesn't know if Boyle is "really smart or really stupid"; Boyle merely smiles. From the start, the American agent and the Irish Garda, or guard, butt heads as a result of their different methods of law enforcement, but their animosity grows into a begrudging respect as they discover their motives are ultimately the same.
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The Guard carries the distinction of being "the most successful Irish film of all time in terms of Irish box-office receipts," according to Wikipedia; it certainly is "great craic", a saying meaning good fun in Gaelic. Set in Ireland, The Guard is a "buddy cop" movie in the vein of movies like Lethal Weapon, but with far more of a comic bent to it. Boyle is the Sergeant stationed in the Connemara "Gaeltacht", or countryside, not far outside of Galway, where his unique interpretation of law enforcement does not preclude lifting illegal substances he "confiscates" from the bodies of drunk driving teens after a car accident, or indulging in the company of working girls in from Dublin from the "agency" he frequently employs. Boyle's brusque demeanor comes as a shock to his newest ally in the good fight, his new subordinate, Garda Aidan McBride (Rory Keenan), as they investigate a puzzling murder with "occult overtones", a clue provided by an anonymous caller, later revealed to be Francis Sheehy-Skeffington (Liam Cunningham), the leader of a cell of international drug runners and killers. When Agent Everett shows up to deliver a presentation about the drug dealers he's hunting, Boyle not only reveals his character with a baffling racist comment about drug dealers' skin colors, but also brazenly refuses his threat of suspension, revealing that he already has new information in this case; that one of the four fugitives has already been killed, and that it was the same man he and McBride discovered with pages of a bible stuffed in his mouth, the number "5 1/2" painted above his head. After McBride goes missing, Everett and Boyle begin their own somewhat exclusive attempts to solve the crime and track down the killers. But as it starts on Boyle's day off, he first indulges in a little R&R with some ladies in a hotel room, while Everett attempts to canvas the neighborhood of predominantly Gaelic-speaking country folk, who are convinced that he's from the FBI's "psychological behavioral unit", and get annoyed when he tells them he's investigating drug trafficking.
It would be simply standard fare if The Guard concerned itself exclusively with the crime-solving and eventual confrontation with the bad guys. Instead, the film chooses to tell its story through a bushel of moments between characters which are not just designed to further the plot, but add character and personality to the main players. A subplot involving Boyle's mother, Eileen Boyle (Fionnula Flanagan), who is dying of cancer, reveals a caring son who visits his mom in the hospital, and takes her out to the pub in her final days to help her feel whole again. Another interaction between Everett and Boyle one morning has Everett is jogging on the beach, when Boyle emerges from the sea in scuba gear--a far cry from Ursula Andress--leading to them sharing breakfasts which say much about their characters, and Boyle going on about how he was fourth place as an Olympic swimmer, an assertion Everett takes with more salt than what Boyle puts on his black pudding. And a scene where Boyle is called by a young lad named Eugene (Michael Og Lane) to investigate a stash of serious guns from the IRA is later revisited when Boyle returns some of the guns to his contact in the organization. For a film about organized crime, murder, and corruption, these numerous scenes make up the majority of the picture, revealing that the crime story is really a backdrop for the comedic interactions and light-hearted banter and witticisms throughout. Even the cadre of crooks discourse about famous philosophers and their nationalities, and less so at any great length about their dirty deeds. They even take a trip to the aquarium--for no apparent plot-related reason--simply killing time between the pickup to happen later. As the cynical bloke from London, Clive Cornell (Mark Strong) laments that he wishes he could deal with a better caliber of people in his line of work, their more skittish ally, Liam O'Leary (David Wilmot), makes metaphorical allusions to the sharks in the tank. Although Boyle is clearly the main character of the piece, I suspect that American audiences would still identify more with Everett, who really is an observer into a world which is not his own, but one which he is at least compelled to try to comprehend in the course of his duty, by virtue of its enigmatic and unbridled representative of the guard.
Recommended for: Fans of "buddy cop" movies and comedies, with a good deal of action and intrigue, though the meat of the film is in the clever dialogue and "odd couple"-like interactions between Everett and Boyle. Probably not recommended for those looking for an authentic representation of police procedure in Ireland, though.
It would be simply standard fare if The Guard concerned itself exclusively with the crime-solving and eventual confrontation with the bad guys. Instead, the film chooses to tell its story through a bushel of moments between characters which are not just designed to further the plot, but add character and personality to the main players. A subplot involving Boyle's mother, Eileen Boyle (Fionnula Flanagan), who is dying of cancer, reveals a caring son who visits his mom in the hospital, and takes her out to the pub in her final days to help her feel whole again. Another interaction between Everett and Boyle one morning has Everett is jogging on the beach, when Boyle emerges from the sea in scuba gear--a far cry from Ursula Andress--leading to them sharing breakfasts which say much about their characters, and Boyle going on about how he was fourth place as an Olympic swimmer, an assertion Everett takes with more salt than what Boyle puts on his black pudding. And a scene where Boyle is called by a young lad named Eugene (Michael Og Lane) to investigate a stash of serious guns from the IRA is later revisited when Boyle returns some of the guns to his contact in the organization. For a film about organized crime, murder, and corruption, these numerous scenes make up the majority of the picture, revealing that the crime story is really a backdrop for the comedic interactions and light-hearted banter and witticisms throughout. Even the cadre of crooks discourse about famous philosophers and their nationalities, and less so at any great length about their dirty deeds. They even take a trip to the aquarium--for no apparent plot-related reason--simply killing time between the pickup to happen later. As the cynical bloke from London, Clive Cornell (Mark Strong) laments that he wishes he could deal with a better caliber of people in his line of work, their more skittish ally, Liam O'Leary (David Wilmot), makes metaphorical allusions to the sharks in the tank. Although Boyle is clearly the main character of the piece, I suspect that American audiences would still identify more with Everett, who really is an observer into a world which is not his own, but one which he is at least compelled to try to comprehend in the course of his duty, by virtue of its enigmatic and unbridled representative of the guard.
Recommended for: Fans of "buddy cop" movies and comedies, with a good deal of action and intrigue, though the meat of the film is in the clever dialogue and "odd couple"-like interactions between Everett and Boyle. Probably not recommended for those looking for an authentic representation of police procedure in Ireland, though.