Blacker than a referee's knickers

We saw Ian Fitzgibbon’s new movie, Perrier’s Bounty, this morning in a darkened Soho screening room with loads of other chattering film journos and can happily reveal that, without knowing too much about it before, it was a heady little surprise, blacker than a referee's underpants and all the more brilliant for it.

Michael (Cillian Murphy) owes some readies to Dublin’s most brutal gangster, Darren Perrier (Brendan Gleeson). Perrier’s goons are heavy on Michael’s case, but his load gets much weightier when his recently dumped, suicidal best friend Brenda (Jodie Whittaker), shoots one of them dead and his estranged father Jim (Jim Broadbent) witnesses the whole thing.

It gets better.

Michael’s dad is convinced the next time he sleeps he’s gonna die, Brenda’s still obsessed with her cheating other-half, and Michael’s steadily losing the plot amongst snooker-loving coke dealers, homo henchmen, two-faced loan sharks, snarling rottweilers and tinpot wheel clampers. Can he make it to the end with his fibulas, tibulas, scapulas and, most importantly, his marbles still intact?

That of course, would be telling. Safe to say Michael's journey is a windey little number lined with alluringly verbose hostility and the unlikeliest of violent, humour-laden set-pieces.

Mark O’Rowe’s script is double-cocked with unorthodox wit in a final product which he says “begins with the language. There is nothing better than to see the dialogue well crafted and well honed, but it’s a different story when Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent and Cillian Murphy say the words. They lift it up somewhere else.”

He’s right. The comic exchanges between the main protagonists, and their individual character pitches, are nothing short of spot-the-fuck-on and the downwardly spiralling sequence of events are in equal measure amusing as they are agonising.

Half comic tour de force and half “urban western”, Perrier's Bounty is a 90-minute treat and, in case you hadn't gathered this by now, we recommend it.

Interview with the writer, Mark O'Rowe

Perrier's Bounty is Mark O'Rowe's third foray into screenwriting having written the award-winning Intermission (2003) and Boy A (2007)

In one sentence, describe Perrier's Bounty?
It falls into the film genre of comedy/thriller. It's a slightly heightened, cartoonish version of Dublin with the dialogue and action both quite heightened. I refer to it myself as cartoon naturalism.

How does writing for the screen compare with writing for the theatre?
I consider myself a playwright, I have a playwright background, I am someone who occasionally writes for film! I certainly didn't want to drop that literal style, it works well and I think it gives it a more individualistic tone.

Does anyone inspire you?
There are a number of writers who write for film that I love, the likes of the Coen brothers, David Mamet and Elmore Leonard, who are all distinguished by the way they use language. It leaves an imprint on the film.

The cast all refer to the quality of the script - where do you start?
I start off with the language. I haven't got a clue where I am going until I start dialogue with a couple of characters. For Perrier's Bounty I liked the concept of a character with a limited length of time to do something... or else! It feels like a tall tale. From line to line the language has to satisfy me.

Was the narrator in the script from the outset?
I can't honestly remember! I don't know if the opening narration scene came before or after but I do think it works. It could be some guy in a pub telling you a preposterous story.

What are your thoughts about the cast?
There is nothing better than to see dialogue well crafted, well honed, to know that the rhythms are right – but it is a different story when Brendan Gleeson, Jim Broadbent and Cillian Murphy say the words. They lift it up somewhere else - it's fantastic!