With a miniscule budget, mostly Irish cast, a witty (if slightly dark) script, and set in a tiny village in western Ireland, “The Guard” is about as far from a superhero blockbuster as you can find this summer.
And that’s just fine for co-star and executive producer Don Cheadle.
“They are trying to go for the common denominator,” moans Cheadle about summer blockbusters (to be fair, he did point out he has starred in a few). “They make it so everyone can get it; they are taking every nuance out. The things that would spark our interest are blunted. Things get really brought down, I think. Opportunities [like ‘The Guard’] are rare for us.”
Rare, but hilarious. “The Guard”’s plot revolves around an eccentric Irish cop named Gerry Boyle (Brendan Gleeson) who is forced to work with FBI agent Wendell Everett (Cheadle) to crack an international murder/drug trafficking case that lands in Boyle’s small town. And although in film, much fun is poked at Everett for being an outsider, Cheadle picked up on the accents quickly. “It’s like music in a way. If you listen with a careful ear, you understand. Language is only a small percentage of communication anyway, right?”
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