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?
