Perrier’s Bounty is a film I’ve had on
my radar for a while – it has a killer cast (I always enjoy Liam Cunningham,)
and the things I’d heard about it seemed to position it as a sort of spiritual
successor to In Bruges, a movie I
adore. Even though I didn’t get in gear
to actually see it until I had the added incentive of Countdown to Thirteen, I
can say it was worth the wait.
Michael
has gotten in over his head. He owes
money to the gangster Perrier – not a lot, but he still doesn’t have it, so it
doesn’t make much difference. Given an
ominously-tight deadline to come up with the cash, Michael scrambles to figure
something out. The sudden reappearance
of his estranged father, eager to reconcile before his imminent demise, doesn’t
help matters, and everything goes further sideways when Brenda, Michael’s
depressed neighbor, shoots one of Perrier’s goons. Now, the money is no longer the biggest
strike against Michael, and he, Brenda, and his dad are off on a mad dash to
evade the vengeful gangsters on their tails.
While not
quite on par with the audacious hilarity and violence of In Bruges, this is still a highly-entertaining movie, and I see
where the comparisons come from. This is
a great series-of-gang-related-misadventures sort of story, filled with
surprising turns and shake-your-head moments of utter insanity. Between Michael’s moderately-cracked father, Perrier
the merciless but sentimental gangster, and a couple of local men lovingly
training their attack dogs, the characters are both surprising and great fun to
watch.
As I said,
tremendous cast. Most cool Irish actors are
in this movie by one means or another.
In addition to the aforementioned Liam Cunningham, the film stars
Cillian Murphy as Michael and features Brendan Gleeson (Mad Eye Moody!) as
Perrier. Cunningham and Gleeson aren’t
only Game of Thrones/Harry Potter alum, either – on the Game of Thrones side, we have Conleth Hill
(Varys!) and Michael McElhatton (Roose Bolton,) and for Harry Potter, we’ve got Gleeson’s son Domhnall, a.k.a. Bill
Weasley. The film additionally features Downton Abbey’s Brendan Coyle (Mr. Bates)
and voiceovers from Gabriel Byrne, and just to throw in a bit of
English-playing-Irish, we’re treated to Jim Broadbent in a wonderfully-offbeat
performance as Michael’s dad.
Jodie
Whittaker plays what I think is the only English character in the movie,
Michael’s friend Brenda. Recently dumped
by her boyfriend, who was a bastard but who she loved anyway, it’s Brenda’s
kneejerk action that kicks off the really insane portion of the plot. The second she does it, you can just about
see her brain melting from the shock, and as Michael rushes to try and keep
them safe from Perrier’s men, she spends a good chunk of time still in a daze.
Which isn’t
to say that Brenda is useless beyond being that catalyst to the plot. She’s heartbroken, on edge, and unbalanced,
and some of her other actions, especially early in the adventure, are
ill-advised at best, but she does come around to the direness of the situation
at hand and responds as accordingly as anyone in the movie does. She, Michael, and Michael’s dad have a
dark-but-fun dynamic together, and while she frequently causes as much trouble
as she fixes, Brenda is an engaging character whose stubbornness and
impulsiveness at times come in handy.
Accent Watch
Northern
again.
Recommend?
In
General
– I would, provide you don’t mind lots of swearing and violence. This is a really fun dark comedy, and everyone
involved gives it their all.
Jodie
Whittaker
– Sure. Even though Whittaker is
basically relegated to being “the girl” of the film, Brenda is more interesting
than that, and I like the unhinged energy Whittaker brings to the character.
Warnings
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