Walking into Ian Fitzgibbon’s second film “Perrier’s Bounty,” one might inevitably view the film in the light of another recent Irish-made, Brendan Gleeson-starring comic thriller “In Bruges.” The comparison is tenuous at best, as ‘Bounty’ is more lighthearted, simply entertaining fare. Penned by “Intermission” scribe Mark O’Rowe and featuring Cillian Murphy, Jim Broadbent, and Brendan Gleeson, “Bounty” provides a fun, often times uneven and clichéd, romp through a Dublin crime story.
The film opens with what seems to be a dismissal of any attempt at “greater meaning” with Gabriel Byrne’s voiceover narration as the Reaper himself making digs at ponderous philosophical questions of the world. After this short bit, we are immediately introduced to Michael McCrea (Murphy) being rudely awoken by two henchmen demanding money for their crime boss Perrier (Gleeson). Of course, Michael will lose more than just his dignity if he fails to pay back the gangster within the next day.
The first act of “Bounty” is its weakest, offering little more beyond stock character introductions and predictable exposition. Michael seeks the help of a lowlife loan shark who only goes by “The Mutt” (played by a delightfully caustic Liam Cunningham) in order to pay off his debt. Along the way we are introduced to Michael’s father Jim (Broadbent), who arrives announcing that he is dying and eventually reveals to know this due to a visit from the Reaper at his bedside. Also introduced is Brenda (Jodie Whittaker), Michael’s neighbor emotionally wrecked by a relationship on-the-rocks. Over the course of the next forty-eight hours, Michael and company race around Dublin, avoiding the police and illicit business partners alike in order to pay off his debt.
From the end of the first act out, the film is predicated on the dynamic between Michael, his father Jim, and Brenda after she kills one of Perrier’s lackeys in a fit of drunken delusion and the team is forced to go on the lam. Does it work? Not exactly, as the team runs a gamut in quality in terms of both characterization and performance quality. Whittaker is the weakest link here, playing what is unfortunately not much more than an on-screen cliché of fragile lovelorn femininity with somewhat inadequate conviction. Murphy plays his role admirably, bringing what power he can to a somewhat one-dimensional character that lacks depth. Gleeson, as always, is enjoyable as the ruthless (to the point that animal lovers may want to skip this one) crime boss Perrier, a character perhaps not written to its fullest potential.
The obvious highlight is Broadbent’s role as Jim. The character, despite his apparent imminent death, is a bit of an eccentric crazy (think Alan Arkin in “Little Miss Sunshine” with a murderous edge) with not much of a filter between his brain and mouth. Broadbent delivers arguably the film’s best laughs as well as its more humanistic moments, attempting to rekindle his relationship with his son and fix their problems of old. Unfortunately, the past set up between Jim and Michael is underdeveloped, and thus never really sustains proper interest. Some of the film’s more “tender” moments fall a bit flat as a result, rendering some key character moments of “Bounty” as a bit hammy and overwrought.
Characterization faults aside, the script does deliver a good amount of laughs throughout, provided in part by detours to a gang of dog enthusiasts, run-ins with the police and municipal parking attendants, and a visit to the countryside barn of a nutty farmlady. Never resorting to cheap laughs, “Bounty” retains a fun wit in both wordplay and amusing situational predicaments. Fitzgibbon, while pacing both the film’s dialogue and shootout-based action sequences sensibly, seems to lack confidence in the film’s tone, with its serious moments often feeling sillier and even under-rehearsed than it should be. In conjunction with this, Steven Soderbergh regular David Holmes’ score lacks the “effortless cool” of his work in the “Ocean’s” series and comes across as something one might expect in a lower-grade comedic thriller.
Despite its faults, “Perrier’s Bounty” delivers a fine piece of entertainment if nothing else, never aiming to be a heavy morality tale that the faulty comparison to ‘In Bruges’ might suggest. Still a young director, Fitzgibbon obviously still has time to polish his craft, and with a tighter script we could easily see him putting out a considerably better work. Still, despite the fact that the film probably does not offer much that you haven’t seen before, strong sections of the cast and a consistently funny set of dialogue and situations save the film from being much worse than it could have been. [C+]
