Perrier’s Bounty

By Less Lee Moore

This piece originally appeared on the The CillianSite.com on September 14.

For our story of Cillian Murphy’s appearance at the Toronto International Film Festival, go here.

Criss- and double-crosses, lyrical-yet-unpretentious dialogue, and the black comedy of desperation crown the new film by Irish director Ian Fitzgibbon in Perrier’s Bounty, starring Cillian Murphy, Jim Broadbent, Jodie Whittaker, and Brendan Gleeson. If you liked 2003’s sardonic ensemble piece Intermission, also scripted by Mark O’Rowe, you’ll adore Perrier’s Bounty, though it’s decidedly darker, more violent, and more compact.

Cillian Murphy, Jodie Whittaker, Jim Broadbent

The film is most successful when the established tone of a scene takes a sharp right turn; its luster is only dimmed slightly by one convoluted plot device involving a hysterical female farmer. Overall, Perrier’s Bounty is an exhilarating ride that will have you laughing, gasping, and maybe even feeling a tug on your heart or a tear in your eye, often all of these during one scene.

Murphy plays Michael McCrea, a scruffy ne’er-do-well, who has a mere 24 hours to pay back a debt to the notorious local gangster Darren Perrier, or else. A seemingly omniscient narrator, acting as an emcee of sorts, introduces us to Michael, who is disheveled, hungover, and not entirely sympathetic. He is obviously (and literally) lying in the bed he’s made for himself, as much as a mattress on the floor can be “made,” that is.

Absentee father Jim (Broadbent) shows up in the midst of Michael’s crisis, insisting upon having a serious chat about his own supposedly serious problems. And then there’s Brenda (Whittaker), Michael’s neighbor and friend. Michael knows her boyfriend is a wanker; he just can’t seem to make Brenda believe it. As Michael is leaving his flat in an attempt to save his own ass, he runs into her. She seems happy and he doesn’t want to harsh her mellow (or come across as a wanker himself), so he plays down his problems. Right there, we realize there is more to Michael McCrea.

If you blink, you might miss the nuances of the potential romantic tension between the Murphy and Whittaker. Their chemistry develops slowly, but naturally, although it’s fairly obvious that they’re destined to get together at some point. But this isn’t a typical Hollywood movie and nothing in Perrier’s Bounty is quite what it seems. First that is the mysterious, unseen narrator. He seems to know a lot about what’s going on, but how and why? Then there’s the script. O’Rowe has a knack for making imperfect characters come to Technicolor life by relying not on clichés, but human foibles. The payoffs, when they come, are met with cheers and applause, not groans and eye-rolling.

As Jim, Broadbent is full of such cliché-busting foibles. He looks like a mess, sporting four-day-old stubble and spouting rambling soliloquies that seem like nonsense. Jim’s tale of encountering of a supernatural being who insists upon being “enigmatic and obscure” because “that’s me way, man” delights Brenda, but obviously and thoroughly annoys Michael, and we assume that perhaps the entire family is just a bunch of dysfunctional losers.

Yet, both Michael and Jim prove to be surprisingly quick-witted, flouting the law and common sense, with a hearty helping of shocking physical toughness. Rounding out this motley trio is Brenda, who wreaks further havoc on Michael’s already-precarious existence during a heartbreak-induced bender. But if you think she’s just a helpless female who needs saving (even as she claims to be past such redemption), you’d be wrong.

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