The Guard (2011)

The shadow of the prolific Irish playwright, filmmaker, and screenwriter Martin McDonagh looms large over his brother’s film The Guard (2011).  Martin, whose work for the stage has earned him four Tony Award nominations and his film career launched with the Academy Award winning short Six Shooter (2005) before he transitioned into features with the phenomenal In Bruges (2008), serves as producer on John Michael McDonagh’s debut film.  Yet, his influence reaches beyond the financial.  The casting Brendan Gleeson as the lead, an alcoholic cop that would give Nic Cage’s Bad Lieutenant a run for his money, and the nimble transitions from black comedy to shocking violence are both constant variables in Martin’s work (Gleeson was a lead in both Six Shooter and In Bruges).  The question is:  Does it succeed on its own terms? 

The Guard begins loudly with a car full of Irish youth, cranking music, drinking, and doing an assortment of designer drugs.  Suddenly, the car crashes on a scenic and deserted highway.  Almost immediately after the crash, Sgt. Gerry Boyle (Gleeson) arrives on the scene.  He looks at the wreck warily and pockets the remaining drugs for himself.   The sequence embodies the collision between expectation and innovation that Martin showed for the thriller genre in Bruges:  if we are expecting a loud and tense thriller of the Guy Richie varietal, we are bound to be disappointed.  This is a quiet, deadpan, hilarious, and occasionally, heartfelt film, of which the “thriller” is almost an afterthought. 


After the car crash, Boyle is assigned to murder case that looks to be the work of a serial killer.  However, when his young partner is killed during the investigation, Boyle and the police force realize that a bigger scheme seems to be in the works, one involving an international drug smuggling ring.  Soon after, Boyle is partnered up with a Wendell Everett (Don Cheadle), a by-the-book FBI agent sent to aid the investigation.  We expect the pair to hit the ground running, given the conventions of odd couple/bi-racial thriller films like 48 Hrs. (1982) and Lethal Weapon (1987).  Yet, John Michael once again subverts those expectations as Boyle announces that it’s his day off and that the investigation will resume when he comes back to work. 

What John Michael then goes on to investigate is not an international drug ring but the rather lonely life of Boyle.  Here is a man who spends his weekends drinking and whoring and we assume it is because he’s a corrupt, self-destructive, cop (like all the others we have been introduced to throughout the history of cinema).  Yet, John Michael once again subverts our expectations.  While Boyle may be corrupt and self-destructive, his self-destruction stems from the pain of dealing with his dying mother (played wonderfully by Lost alum Fionnula Flanagan).  Once humanized, John Michael reunites Boyle with Everett and once again undercuts our expectations:  Boyle is racially ignorant, frequently clashing with his new partner (as Boyle cheerfully announces, “I’m Irish.  Racism is part of my culture.”).  Yet, despite this and Boyle’s apparent ineptitude as a police officer, the duo is able to overcome their cultural differences and get to the bottom of their investigation.   As Everett later thinks aloud to Boyle, “I can’t tell if you’re really motherfucking dumb or really motherfucking smart.”  To the film’s credit, we are never quite sure. 

Obviously, the film is not without its share of issues, the first being indicative of most debut films.  Essentially, John Michael's individual voice is hard to define.  He leans so heavily on the tonal conventions that his brother established with greater refinement in In Bruges that it's difficult not to feel slightly underwhelmed, especially given the outpouring of admiration that film benefitted from.  The Guard has incredibly large shoes to fill and with Gleeson in a hell of a starring role, it does the best it can.  However, Cheadle, who finds time to shine as the tightly-wound partner, is largely underused and one-note.  Ultimately, despite these minor flaws, the film definitely quenches the cinephile’s thirst for a smart, profane, comedy.  Perhaps, with this film under his belt, John Michael can find a way to extend his subversion of expectation on his own family's traits.