Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle make this rude police comedy worth the detours. John Michael McDonagh gives them sharp exchanges, though the investigation needs more urgency and the partnership could be more equal.
The Guard is a funny, uneven police comedy that gives its leading actor ample room and its investigation rather less attention. John Michael McDonagh writes and directs a mismatched partnership between a contrary Irish sergeant and an FBI agent, with Brendan Gleeson doing most of the provoking and Don Cheadle most of the absorbing. We recommend it for those exchanges, with a warning about the slack crime story. At 96 minutes, it still finds time to dawdle.
Brendan Gleeson makes Sergeant Gerry Boyle difficult to settle on. His rudeness can look calculated, his lack of interest can seem sincere, and then a small shift in his attention makes us reconsider both. There is pleasure in watching an actor keep a comic character this uncertain without making him vague. We laughed hardest at Boyle needling Everett, because Brendan Gleeson refuses to advertise where the joke is supposed to land. His composure gives Don Cheadle something solid to push against.
Don Cheadle deserves more credit than the quieter role initially suggests. FBI agent Wendell Everett has to listen, assess and decide whether taking offence would merely prolong the conversation. Don Cheadle makes that work visible without turning every response into a performance of wounded dignity. The limitation belongs to John Michael McDonagh’s script: Everett is too often required to receive the joke, and gets fewer chances to surprise us. The partnership remains funny, but its imbalance becomes noticeable as the film goes on.
Larry Smith’s cinematography gives the film bright colour rather than the dutiful murk that so often passes for seriousness in crime stories. That brightness suits a comedy which does not need every encounter to look threatening. John Paul Kelly’s production design makes the small-town surroundings feel ordinary and inhabited, helping Boyle seem established there rather than dropped into a convenient location. The American’s unfamiliarity with the place matters, and the film is good at showing how little professional confidence helps when the people around him decline to cooperate.
Chris Gill’s editing is most effective within the conversations, allowing irritation to register before the next remark arrives. The larger rhythm is less secure, and some stretches feel like a wait for another good line rather than progress through an investigation. Calexico’s music supplies a swagger the crime story does not always earn, though its liveliness is welcome. The dialogue is entertaining enough that these pauses rarely become tiresome, but a stronger sense of pressure would have made the interruptions funnier.
As a buddy-cop film, The Guard understands how much comedy comes from its partners disagreeing about how seriously to take each other. John Michael McDonagh is less successful at making the case feel necessary, and anyone waiting for it to become as interesting as Boyle may get impatient. What keeps us with Boyle is Brendan Gleeson’s suggestion that there is more going on than a wish to annoy. We would happily spend another evening with him, though we would hesitate to report a burglary.
