On the couch

`I remember the first time I saw South Park. I sat, slack-jawed at the volumn, vigor and variety of swear words used by those badly animated little squirts. It wasn’t just the bad words that made the cartoon funny though, it’s just that there are very few things that can’t be made a little more amusing by a well placed, timed or utter dose of effing and blinding.
I remember thinking exactly the same thing when I saw In Bruges many years later. With language a prominent character in Martin McDonagh’s excellent film, the nearly constant colourful swearing added to both the humour and gravity of story.
Off-setting any quibbles about vulgarity being the refuge of the inarticulate, however, the script made a point of making its protagonists almost cartoonishly verbose and occasionally courtly in the their manners, taking more from the Tarantino school of gangsterspeak than the James Elroy one.
All of which linguistic meandering leads to The Guard, written and directed by John Michael McDonagh (brother of Martin), a magnificent, hilarious west coast cop movie that’s one part Lethal Weapon, two parts Kiss Kiss Bang Bang and 10 parts Myles na gCopaleen.
While investigating a murder in Connemara, a local garda, Sergeant Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson), joins forces with strait-laced FBI agent Wendall Everett (Don Cheadle) and pits his somewhat idiosyncratic investigative techniques against an international drugs cartel.
Built on a solid foundation of its drug smuggling in rural Ireland story, The Guard is made extraordinary by its script and by Brendan Gleeson in the central role.
From the opening scene where he takes a hit of acid he recently relieved from a dead body, it’s hard to discern whether Boyle is a brilliant cop with his finger on the pulse or a deadbeat drunk with delusions of grandeur.
Navigating a world of richly drawn eccentrics – from Pat Shortt’s cowboy hat-wearing arms dealer to Mark Strong’s philospphy-quoting hood – the sergeant is king, and barely a scene goes without him making an inappropriate comment, or dropping a peculiar non-sequitur. Despite it all, though, he’s nothing if not cool. He’s like a white Shaft.
With every line a pearl of comedic perfection, the funniest thing about The Guard is that it doesn’t play itself as a comedy. In its head, it’s a serious buddy cop movie but Gleeson’s handling of the material makes it a thing of absurd, laugh-wringing beauty.
Flying in the face of The Guard’s giddy, surreal hilarity is Horrible Bosses, about as far from McDonagh’s film in tone as you can get while still calling both comedies.
It’s not that Seth Gordon’s film about three pals who decided their lives would be better if their bosses all stopped breathing isn’t amusing, it’s just that in comparison to something with such a strong identity like The Guard, it feels like funny with the volume turned down.
The three amigos, Jason Bateman, Charlie Day and Jason Sudeikis come to their murderous decision after enduring abuse, indignity and sexual harassment at the hands of their employers – Kevin Spacey, Colin Farrell and Jennifer Aniston respectively.
Despite not being the worst thing you’ll ever see, there are still a couple of problems with Horrible Bosses, the casting to start with. It seems a little unfair to pit the three leads (Bateman slightly excluded) who, despite their talents, are still far from the heavyweights, reputation-wise, of Farrell, Spacey and Aniston. Any one of the three’s performances would have been enough to steal the film from the lads but all three? It just feels like cine-bullying.
As it stands all three are brilliant – Farrell is excellent as a balding, coked-up wastrel, Spacey dusts off the ‘boss from hell’ schtick he perfected in Swimming With Sharks and Jennifer Aniston reminds the world that whatever you might think about her and her tabloid antics, she’s a fantastic comedy actress that deserves much better than she usually gets.
While most of the best gags get left for the final 20 minutes of the film, there’s still enough in Horrible Bosses to keep you amused if not actively laughing. Well acted and featuring a cast of unquestionable quality, the only real wonder is – why isn’t it funnier