Perrier's Bounty - Blu-ray Review

'plays its own particular brand of gangster-bothering bravado with a broadly comic palette'

Like several gangster thrillers before it, Perrier's Bounty uses the tried and tested method of having a man (Cillian Murphy) indebted to a small-time crook (Brendan Gleeson), as the catalyst for ninety minutes of rushing around, attempting to find new ways for our hero to find the money whilst pondering how far the villain will go to get it back.

Perrier's Bounty plays its own particular brand of gangster-bothering bravado with a broadly comic palette, lightening scenes of violence or threat with witty one-liners and visual gags. The key element in this regard is Jim Broadbent whose terrible Irish accent and quirky belief that he'll die the next time he falls asleep, grates at first but soon develops into a sympathetic character who provides substantial amounts of comic relief. The other element in the group of escapees comes from Jodie Whittaker's Brenda, who fares less well with an under-written role which relies on her misplaced love for Shamie (Padraic Delaney).

With Brendan Gleeson's mobster lurking in the background, the film completely works as the run-around romp it desperately wants to be as Michael (Murphy) is dragged into a house robbery, a body disposal, a shoot-out at a pool hall and, inevitably, Brenda's love-life with disdain and disbelief, Murphy all-the-while understated and close to perfect as the everyman next to his two more vociferous foils.

As director Ian Fitzgibbon searches for a way to make writer Mark O'Rowe's conclusions seem somewhere near believable, he pulls out a final scene which approaches poignant, covering over the cracks in the final confrontation which pulls in too many characters from nowhere to ring true. With all the humour on show though, it's hard to really notice such minor inconveniences as this and although Perrier's Bounty sometimes bites of more than it can chew, it never forgets to have fun whilst it's doing it.

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'Broadbent does a truly terrible job with the Irish accent. Most of the time he sounds like he was raised by Darby O’Gill in Belfast with a stop over in Glasgow' - For Your Consideration, 3/5