Think About It! Presents: Obscure Opinions - The Guard.

This movie really does feel a lot more like my territory than The Veteran was, mainly because it's Irish, this isn't a British movie, it's specially an Irish one. And here I thought the only movie they ever made, was Fatal Deviation. If you got that reference, without need for google, give yourself a medal, you film buff you. Sadly though, this film is actually meant to be good. Well, enjoy!

The Guard is about Gerry Boyle (played by the awesome Brendan Gleeson) who is a police sergeant and possibly a former Olympic swimmer and over the course of the films narrative he gets wrapped in what seems to be an occult murder and an FBI drugs bust. There are other plot details which I'll get to throughout the review but thank God for a nice simple plot, after the last film I reviewed. I mean there are some twists and turns here and there, but the film makes such a lack of deal about them it's like we aren't meant to notice.

The film has one of the strangest openings I've ever seen in a film. A bunch of chavs get drunk and crash their car, killing themselves in the process (somehow without injuries) to which Gerry nonchalantly wanders around to assess the damage before removing the drugs from the kids bodies, to apparently not add insult to injury when the parents find out and to take some himself. The Irish Policeforce, every one!

As it turns out Boyle is a very unconventional policeman and although it's originally played for laughs and his character is shown to be some kind of backwater idiot, as the plot unfurls there may be a lot more to this guy than meets the eye... and it has to be said Gerry Boyle is a brilliant character and Gleeson gives an excellent performance. Boyle's approach to crime solving, the way he reacts with the oddball characters that surround him, it's surreal without going into 'quirky' territory. Surprisingly I find it really hard for movies to make me laugh, but I was laughing through basically the whole thing and I put it mainly down to this character.

The chemistry between Gerry and Cheadle is excellent too. Although you could argue that there really hasn't been enough screentime between the characters to warrant this kind of banter but friends until the end relationship they have and I'd say it's a valid point but I enjoyed the way their two characters bounced off one another nonetheless.

It eventually unfurls that Gerry's mother is dying and I think this was a really clever scene. Although it'd be easy to use the usual dramatic cliché of him being desensitised to death but when it is his mother, he breaks down, he instead stays pretty calm and casual and shows this new, soft, caring side to himself. I find it clever they went with an emotion and reaction more associated with happiness than they did sadness. The chemistry between Gleeson and Fionnula Flanagan is just incredible, they do a really charming job of like mother like son between Gerry and his mother without going over to hammy territory. To be fair though, I am not entirely sure why this subplot is there though, because it does little to change or challenge Gerry and has very little impact on the overall plot.

Eventually, the ongoing gag of the central characters being nonchalant to everything does undermine some of the film. A minor character named McBride is murdered and the way he goes down is absolutely awesome, but rather than concentrating on this, the film is throwing the nonchalant gag at us before the poor guy even hits the ground. It only worked the first time, because it takes you by surprise. And it eventually gets even weirder, as the film progresses it seems to be saying a lot about life, place and surroundings, career, circle of life and how all of these things can really effect a person. Money can't buy happiness and all that and yet it holds its own message back by undermining it with gags as soon as something meaningful rears its head. To be fair the last twenty or so minutes do decide to take itself seriously and it works, but too little too late springs to mind.

It eventually closes much in the same way The Veteran does, but here it works. The whole movie has basically been taking the piss out of itself and yet for the last twenty or so minutes, it's dramatic, emotional and takes itself very seriously making the third act extremely powerful rather than extremely stupid. Plus it probably helps that the scene is done with respect and doesn't play out like a terrible 80's Action Movie parody. I mean it's still silly, but it doesn't turn your brain into mush at the same time.

Oddball is the best way to describe most of this movie, the movie has a very defined and odd colour palette as a motif and it's set in one of those small, backwater towns full of weirdos that are normally featured in horror movies but here is played for laughs, much like The League of Gentlemen. And I must say, I did get a lot of The League of Gentlemen vibes from this and that isn't a bad thing at all. I also got a lot of Twin Peaks vibes too, the whole backwater town, the local cop who has a very different way of doing something to the FBI agent thrown into the mix, it goes in a different direction from Twin Peaks and this really is the most shallow of connection, but if it was noticeable enough to spring into my mind, I feel it worth at least a note.

I really don't know what is weirder, the characters in this town or Boyle's real lack of reaction to any of it. I just know if you watch this movie with your friends, you will be quoting it endlessly. What is even more interesting is that there is a real world still outside of this town, and so although Boyle fits in his own surroundings, he just doesn't fit anywhere else and in places the jokes are on him.

The villains are excellent, unsurprisingly one is played by Mark Strong, you know, since he's played a villain in absolutely everything. I can tell you he nails it and he nails the comedy too. He spends the entire movie playing an extremely sarcastic character named Clive Cornell and he is really, really funny - he's basically exactly like I am and so he became my favourite character in the entire movie. And they are all lead by the awesome Liam Cunningham.

For the most part visually it's pretty standard fair, there are occasional moments of interesting edits or nice staging and the locations are lovely, but it's really easy to just switch off and forget this is a movie, there really isn't a whole lot of style.

So do I recommend it? If a comedy movie makes you laugh it's succeeded in its purpose. In terms of how good it is as an actual film though, well actually it's pretty good. There are times that the jokes can be a little overdone and I there are quite a lot of scenes and plotthreads I just don't really understand their place in this movie but I do highly recommend this movie nonetheless, it's funny, it's powerful, it has some great characters and in the end is pretty damn awesome.

Think About It!

-Locke