Kopfgeld - Perrier's Bounty

An Irish gangster crime comedy. Well, Irish, gangster and crime are all accurate but whether it's a comedy, drama or thriller that's up to you to decide. Perrier (Brendan Gleeson) has a bounty for the head of Michael (Cillian Murphy). Poor lad, he owes money to some local thugs.

With the help of his beautiful, slightly crazy and suicidal neighbour Brenda (Jodie Whittaker), they accidentally kill a thug, and then with the encouragement of his might-be-dying father (Jim Broadbent), they go on a crime spree.

It's a comedy of errors where the errors lead to many murders, some accidental but some because there's nothing better to do. It's violent for the sake of being violent with a few uneasy laughs. Add Gabriel Byrne as the voice of the narrator/The Reaper expounding on the philosophical virtues of life, death and the ocean, just to make the film more well-rounded. I'm assuming that's the purpose, and also that the contradiction between philosophy and gangster crime is supposed to be hilarious.

"Perrier's Bounty" could be a brilliant fusion of all genres into a gangster crime film. But it's missing some vital cohesiveness and substance to make this more than a weirdly funny, violent crime spree through an Irish night. Which isn't all that bad, but it's no "In Bruges".