Brendan Gleeson is a police sergeant in the west of Ireland. He's one man covering a wide area, and is effectively a law unto himself, which is the way he likes it. In fact, he revels in it, being corrupt in the sense that he has the power to do as he likes and as he sees fit, with nobody to tell him otherwise.
However, into this scenario arrive some flies in his ointment. First, a young policeman from Dublin is assigned there, who he has to take charge of, which is effort. Second, it seems that there's a bunch of drug smugglers in the area, looking to find a place to land cocaine in Ireland, with a view to moving it into the UK. Third, an FBI guy (Don Cheadle) turns up looking for assistance in tracking the above smugglers, and generally expecting the local constabulary to do their jobs.
From there, the situation gets rapidly out of control, as general misunderstanding causes the smugglers to get in Gleeson's way. If they'd just quietly smuggled their drugs through his patch, he probably wouldn't have given a toss, but what with them murdering one of the few people he gives a toss about, he gradually gets about to feeling like he ought to do something about it.
It's a great, hilarious, deeply dark film. The core of it is Gleeson's performance as a wilfully self-contradictory man who's simultaneously a disgrace to the uniform and seeming the last honest man in Ireland - he may take drugs he takes off suspects, and spend his vacation time in hotels with prostitutes, but he's totally up front with that.
The whole thing comes to a head in what is simultaneously a spoof and spot-on homage to John Wayne westerns, as the lone sheriff finally has to do what a man's got to do, and leaves us on a suitably ambiguous ending, allowing us to choose between the legend and the reality of the man.
Pretty much note perfect throughout, it's a bright spot in what's pretty much been a murky few months of cinema.
Views, Reviews, and Inflammatory Comments on the subject of Cinema.
