The Guard: Brendan Gleeson and Don Cheadle as Mismatched Cops

Jonathan Hession/Sony Pictures Classics

To accept The Guard, you must accept Gleeson.

Location Info

Map

Egyptian

805 E. Pine St.
Seattle, WA 98122

Category: Movie Theaters

Region: Capitol Hill

Photos

0 user reviews	Write A Review
Save to foursquare	0

Details

Opens at Egyptian, Fri., Aug. 12. Rated R. 96 minutes.

Related Content

• The Cup: Tears at the Horse Track
  May 9, 2012
• J. Edgar: Leo DiCaprio as Closet-Case FBI Director
  November 9, 2011
• Cops Deaths: Could Procedural Changes Have Made Difference for Trooper Tony Radulescu?
  April 10, 2012
• Comment of the Day: Fix Our Broken Immigration System
  May 2, 2012
• House of Hong and House of Lies: A Delightful Merger
  January 26, 2012

More About

• Gerry Boyle
• The Guard (Movie)
• Brendan Gleeson
• Don Cheadle
• John Michael McDonagh

Like this Story?

Sign up for the Events Newsletter: What's happening in town? From underground club nights to the biggest outdoor festivals, our top picks for the week's best events will always keep you in on the action.

Privacy Policy Cancel Continue

This shaggy-man character study follows a 50-something policeman in western Ireland, Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson). No by-the-book cop, Boyle spends his days off romping with hookers, and has no qualms about gulping MDMA from the pockets of a freshly dead teenager—he also displays a proletarian literary bent, visits his ailing mum to cheer her with pained jocularity, and, unlike his better-turned-out colleagues, holds himself to an unorthodox-but-unbendable code of honor. As an FBI agent visiting to intercept a massive drug drop, Don Cheadle is on hand to straight-man and to instruct the audience to grudgingly appreciate Boyle for what he is, despite his racial ribbing of the Don Rickles, all-in-good-fun school. ("I'm Irish, sir, racism is a part of me culture," Boyle announces.) One senses that The Guard is director John Michael McDonagh's eulogy for the brusque, warts-and-all character of a passing generation of tough, working-class Irishmen, much as Clint Eastwood's Gran Torino was for vintage Americanism. But his film eschews any pretense of social reality for cinematographic fancifulness and too-clever-by-half dialogue, much of it from a trio of drug smugglers livening up Boyle's jurisdiction with homicides. As Cheadle drifts around a vaguely thought-through role, The Guard bets everything on Gleeson's boyish twinkle—and tends to overestimate its own raffish charm.