a SIFF 2010 review
Jovial Bounty Drowns in Cliché Familiarity
Michael McCrea (Cillian Murphy) is running out of time. He needs to get the cash together to payoff Darren Perrier (Brendan Gleeson) or risk getting a couple of his bones broke by a pair of his thugs. He can’t manage it, of course, and even though he’s engaged in a spot of larceny with noted small time thief The Mutt (Liam Cunningham) getting the cash together proves to be a frustrating impossibility.
Cillian Murphy in Perrier's Bounty
Things go from bad to worse when Perrier’s goons arrive to give the man his bone breaking, but before they can do it the debtor’s best friend and somewhat suicidal next door neighbor Brenda (Jodie Whittaker) ups and shoots one of them dead before they can complete their task. Now the two have a full-blown bounty on their heads put on them by the bereaved gangster, and with Michael estranged father Jim (Jim Broadbent) in tow the trio go on the run trying to figure out how they’re going to get out of this mess alive.
A festival favorite, Perrier’s Bounty is one of those comedic British crime thrillers I just can’t quite figure out what the fuss is all about. Yes, it is beautifully (and sometimes ingeniously) acted by its all-star cast, and of course there are more than a few moments of brutal surprise that had me laughing out loud while at the same time cringing. But just because that’s true it’s not enough to make director Ian Fitzgibbon and writer Mark O’Rowe’s (Boy A, Intermission) effort any less overly familiar, fans of flicks like Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Layer Cake sure to notice just how derivative this one ultimately is.
There’s not much else I can say other than I felt like I’d been here way too many times before. Michael’s story isn’t new, and even with a wiseass Grimm Reaper (beautifully voiced by Gabriel Byrne) narrating things there weren’t near enough surprises to warrant my sitting through all 88 minutes of his journey. Even a final canine twist wasn’t a shock, the ultimate outcome as forgone as Lebron James choosing to leave Cleveland for Miami or Mel Gibson getting caught on tape saying something asinine and stupid.
In all fairness, the cast almost makes this work almost in spite of itself. Murphy is pitch-perfect as Michael, while Broadbent is obviously having a field day as his mordantly wisecracking dad. The continually underrated Cunningham is a constant delight, and as far as relative newcomer Whittaker (you might remember her from Venus) is concerned she’s a bona fide sensation in every sense of the word.
Then there is Gleeson. While Perrier is the kind of character the veteran character actor could play in his sleep the relish in which he digs into him all the same is really quite impressive. He eviscerates the guy, tears him to pieces with such gleeful enthusiasm I started to want more of him. He twirls his lips around the guy’s lines with delectable disgust, and while his ultimate comeuppance is more than earned I had so much fun watching the guy work his foul-mouthed magic I was actually kind of sorry to see him go.
If you think I’m giving anything away here I promise you I’m not because in reality there isn’t anything actually to give away. O’Rowe’s plot is woefully obvious, and for a guy who wrote two extremely smart and literate scripts his first couple of times out to see this one drown in its own cliché familiarity is sad to say the least. Perrier’s Bounty was a movie I desperately wanted to like more than I actually did, and as good as the actors are and as quickly as it all moves to say that this one just doesn’t get the job done would be a massive understatement and then some.
Film Rating: êê (out of 4)
Additional Links
