The truth seems to be eluding the police on Belfast’s streets. A shocking incident involving DC Conor Brennan (Joseph Sharkey) and DS Gerry Sully (Sohaib Syed) finds DCI Anderson (Sarah Spence) questioning the validity of what really happened.
Early on, it seems as though writer/director Bruce Wabbit is onto something with Off/Guard’s slick opening credit scene. Set to the haunting tunes of Ari Mason’s Dim the Lights, the sequence is a showcase of the Northern Irish suburbs, setting up what promises to be a gritty, high-stakes mystery. Except when it comes time to deliver on that promise, the film rapidly begins falling apart.
The short’s sound design and camerawork are notably lacking in quality. The cinematography is quite uninspired, suffering from improperly exposed images or shots that are just plain out of focus. The auditory experience is arguably even worse. Poor mixing and overprocessed dialogue undermine the impact of the actors’ performances. Sharkey and Syed are a solid on-screen duo, as evidenced by their outstanding work in Wabbit’s previous directorial outing, The Crook and the Creek.
Yet the lack of fleshed-out character motivations leads to typical cop talk with little in the way of meaningful conversations. Sharkey’s character Brennan, a hard-nosed instigator, serves as a contrast to the more level-headed Sully. The script, however, is far too loose with these personality traits, causing both to make decisions unbecoming of themselves.
Because of how troublesomely inconsistent the writing is, it’s challenging to get behind the compelling elements of the case at hand. Off/Guard’s perspective-based exploration of policework could have been a welcome surprise to audiences, but instead it doesn’t stand out from other, better-executed police procedural stories.
