The Guard (2011)

I got a bad flu and I'm about to go on a smth like 17 hours trip (= end of vacation, goin' back to work) which I hope I'll survive, so I'll try to be short to catch at least two hours of sleep before. Long ago, I've seen "In Bruges". What's the connection with "The Guard" ? Well .. the directors are brothers, Brendan Gleeson is a main character in both, and we have the same dark humor. Sounds promising, doesn't ? Still "The Guard" is not exactly "In Bruges" ...

The subject is built around the above mentioned who acts as a very unorthodox police sergeant, stationed in an Irish village, who gets involved (mostly against his wish) in the most important case in the criminal history of the rural community where he was peacefully patrolling. More exactly, an FBI agent (Don Cheadle) is sent in the area to catch a group of drug smugglers who are planning a transport of half a billion dollars in value (the street price). I'll stop with the story by saying that despite the impression you might get you won't have the typical cop duo from other movies (aka "Lethal Weapon", "Starsky & Hutch", etc) = they don't share much screen time together (at least not as much as the trailer suggests).

The humor is obtained mainly from the contrast to the classic image of the US cop, contrast that's given by the Irish sergeant (along with the local law enforcement people) who is pretty much driving crazy the agent from across the ocean, this one ending up at some point interrogating the horses from a field (more or less seriously) due to the fruitful collaboration of the indigenous population. The result of all this, that makes you think sometimes what would be the definition of "normal" in that area, is the same comic type that we had also in "In Bruges", but a bit more dry I think. As in there, especially since here I didn't get laugh bursts, I couldn't say that the movie is a pure comedy. Without more details, you have enough drama also in it.

As a technical aspect I was pleasantly surprised by several scenes (which I didn't expect, considering the genre and the budget). To observe especially the scene inside the yacht from the end (I can give a plus for that for originality). Since I was telling about the end, I'll conclude by saying that this is the part that made me consider the movie above average = if up to that point you might feel that something is missing (especially if you've seen "In Bruges"), the last twenty minutes save enough to make it worth the time.

Rating: 4 out of 5