REVIEW: PERRIER'S BOUNTY

ABOVE: Perrier's Bounty is a low-budget crime caper

Andy's rating: 3/5

THE best of Hollywood’s Irish community headed home to star  in this low-budget crime caper.

And with a sparkling script like this it’s not difficult to see why.

Perrier’s Bounty joins In Bruges in the new genre of Irish gangster comedy– and like its predecessor it somehow manages to tickle ribs and race pulses in equal measure.

Former Batman villain Cillian Murphy plays Michael McCrea – a small-time Dublin crook who has just a few hours to raise a grand to pay off Brendan Gleeson’s psychopathic hoodlum, Darren Perrier.

When McCrea’s suicidal pal Brenda shoots one of Perrier’s goons dead the couple must take to the hills.

To make matters worse, Michael’s estranged coke-snorting dad, played with wonderful pottiness by Jim Broadbent, turns up convinced he’s going to die the next time he falls asleep. The pace is kept ticking over by Gabriel Byrne’s mysteriously laid back narrator – the key to whose identity is saved for a neat twist.

Writer Mark O’Rowe says his script is based on old Westerns and the story does eventually slip into a rut of predictability as soon as McCrea’s gunslinger decides to face up to Perrier and his past.

But ultimately it’s O’Rowe’s mastery of comic dialogue that keeps this Gaelic gangster flick a cut above the Guy Ritchie-inspired trash too often served up this side of the Irish Sea.

Gleeson’s foul-mouthed mobster is a hoot, even when he’s murdering pets or bludgeoning pensioners. One scene where he gamely tries to stay the right side of political correctness during a heart-to-heart with a gay henchman is worthy of David Brent.

Liam Cunningham also has his fair share of killer lines as rival mobster The Mutt. And there’s fun to be had with the fringe characters, like a pair of gung-ho clampers and a mob of pitbull-fancying bouncers.

O’Rowe even has time to have a quick pluck of the heartstrings as Michael is forced to forgive his dad and declare his love for Brenda.

Of course, you’ve seen these moments coming a mile off. But even though the film doesn’t come close to In Bruges for inventiveness, it still isn’t far behind in terms of sheer entertainment.

In cinemas from Friday

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