2011 crime drama/comedy, dir. John Michael McDonagh, Brendan Gleeson,
Don Cheadle; IMDb /
allmovie. On the
rural Connemara coast, Sergeant Gerry Boyle has no time for people who
don't want to let him do things his own way, but he still gets the
policing done. Now, with the possibility of a huge cargo of cocaine
coming in, there's an FBI agent in town…
Which makes it sound like the setup for a tough-guy buddy comedy;
but really, it isn't. Yes, Agent Wendell Everett does work with Boyle…
briefly. And they shock each other with their world views; at least
Boyle shocks Everett, but Boyle himself is essentially unmovable. He
is what he is, and that's not always a very nice person, but he's OK
with that.
This is much more Boyle's film than Everett's. In the opening scene he
covers up a crime (removing the drugs from some kids who've crashed
their car and died, because "I don't think your mammy would be too
pleased about that now", not to mention wanting them for himself); he
has a taste for booze and prostitutes, too; but, it turns out, he's
the only Garda who can't be bribed or blackmailed off the case.
Especially once his partner… well.
There's a certain amount of the filmic vocabulary of the Western,
especially in the music; perhaps it's a little overplayed. Direction
is generally fine, taking full advantage of the washed-out landscapes
offered by the Galway and Wicklow countryside as well as some
effectively claustrophobic interiors (always a challenge to film as
you have to fit in all the cameras and lights while still making the
set feel small).
Minor characters shine too, from Boyle's dying mother (Fionnula
Flanagan) to the criminals: the philosopher (Liam Cunningham), the
London hard man sinking into ennui, and the psychotic killer.
"I'm a sociopath, not a psychopath. They explained that to me at
Mountjoy."
Not many films of this kind would bother to establish the bad guys
and give them real character, but they too work as people. Indeed,
they could carry a film of their own.
This is a very effective dark comedy, which presents an essentially
unlikeable character and then gets the viewer to care about him enough
to be concerned about what happens to him in the final confontation.
That's a neat trick, and while it's not the kind of film I want to
watch every week it works extremely well here.
Trailer here.
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