Guy Ritchie may have popularized crime capers from the British Isles with Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch, but it is with Perrier's Bounty that director Ian FitzGibbon – who returns to the Festival after the success of last year's A Film with Me in It – manages to imbue the genre with the perfect degree of irony and charm, even throwing in a dash of romance.
A tongue-in-cheek narrator introduces us to anti-hero Michael McCrea (Cillian Murphy), who is the perfect boy next door – or upstairs, if you're his best friend Brenda. Night after night, he patiently listens to Brenda's lamentations about her boyfriend Seamus's cheating heart. A real catch, right? The unfortunate matter is that Michael is estranged from his father, Jim (played by Jim Broadbent). And he owes Dublin's most ruthless gangster, Darren Perrier (Brendan Gleeson), a lot of money.
With impeccable pacing, Perrier's Bounty follows Michael during two whirlwind nights in the city. On the first night, he confronts his ailing dad, takes a swing at Seamus at the pub, seeks a loan for his debts, burgles a home, participates in blackmail and is implicated in the accidental murder of one of the crime lord's goons. For his deeds, a ten-thousand-euro bounty is placed upon the heads of him, Brenda and Jim. The twenty-four hours that follow are a veritable game of cat and mouse, with a trail of mishaps and mayhem left across Dublin as Perrier's gang closes in. Michael's fight to save his skin is complicated when he is forced to confront his emotions toward the eccentric Jim, who washes down coffee grounds with cold water, and Brenda, who is morose to the point of being suicidal after getting dumped by Seamus.
From beginning to end, Mark O'Rowe's screenplay is a superb blend of lighthearted, offbeat comedy and crime-story thrills, with the perfect measure of warmth between its hard-luck characters. In Perrier's Bounty, familial bonds and romantic ties make the journey out of the Dublin underworld all the brighter.
Michèle Maheux
Ian FitzGibbon was born in Dublin and raised in Belgium. He studied languages at Trinity College and was later accepted into the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London. After several years of acting, he wrote and directed the short film
Between Dreams (99). He has written and directed for several television series, including
Paths to Freedom and
Be More Ethnic. His feature films include
Spin the Bottle (03),
A Film with Me in It (08), which screened at the Festival last year, and
Perrier's Bounty (09).