The Guard (2011)

Directed by: John Michael McDonagh

Garda Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) pounds a lonely beat on the west coast of Ireland.  This may be just as well, because Boyle is not a poster child for the Irish Tourist Board.  When he’s not pocketing drugs taken from road-crash victims, he’s organising threesomes with prostitutes, although he’s as kind to them as he is to his terminally ill ma (Fionnula Flanagan).  The arrival of an FBI agent (Don Cheadle, who also produced) looking for a rumoured drug shipment, plus the three heavies who are expecting to take delivery of the drugs, sets the scene for a very funny buddy action movie.

The Guard has been compared to 1983’s Local Hero and there is something in that.  But whereas Local Hero put the visiting American centre stage, here the FBI man is much more of a foil to the foul-mouthed Boyle. And to be fair, much of the humour is of the shocked, I-can’t-believe-he-just-said-that kind.  But laughs of all kinds are plentiful, and Boyle’s character is sufficiently fleshed out for us to care about what happens to him.  There’s good support from all the cast, too, particularly the crooks.  A politically incorrect delight.  Go and see.