34 of 36 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Another star in Cate Blanchett's impressive repertoire, October 21, 2003
Despite the media's devastatingly misjudged reviews of VERONICA GUERIN the film is so fine that it will survive by word of mouth. Joel Schumacher understands this type of story - in this case a true stroy of an Irish reporter's murder due to her indomitable fight to expose the Drug Lords of Dublin. He makes us face the ugly aspects of the drug underworld and its pitiful victims, yet he also knows how to harness the audience reaction to drive home a point. If anything this film is a fine example, like TRAFFIC, of calling attention to a true international crisis - drugs with the associated greed of those perpetrating their use and the devastating effect on our youth, our citizery, our cities, our future. Bravo to Joel Schumacher for his ongoing drive to make the grimy things public.
But kudos are definitely in order for the entire cast of this film. Cate Blanchett in the title role has carefully studied the woman on whose life this is based and in doing so she is able to give a performance that is deeply felt, sensitively portrayed, and a complete pleasure to watch AND hear! The cast supporting her includes such fine talents as Brenda Fricker, Ciaran Hinds, Gerard McSorley and even Colin Farrell in a tiny cameo role. Farrell's appearance, despite its brevity, has a solid impact and seems more than an homage to Joel Schumacher who gave his his first major role in TIGERLAND.
The cinematography captures Dublin and the countryside of Ireland in all its rainy, grimy beauty and the musical score is hauntingly appropriate. As the public responds en masse to the funeral procession of Veronica Guerin there is a sense of the Argentinian response to the death of Evita Peron - a country paying tribute to a heroine. Give this film a chance, tells your friends to see it - the message and quality of VERONICA GUERIN is that good.
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16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
You have to ask Why?..., October 26, 2003
Leaving the theater, after watching Veronica Guerin, you have to ask yourself, WHY? Why did an Irish journalist, who had no experience in investigative reporting, suddenly want to take on the top Drug Lords in Dublin? Why did she push herself so hard and so fast, that she had little time for her husband and six-year-old son? Since Veronica was such a loner, without many friends, and worked out of her home, the WHY quwstion will probably never be answered.
Amazon.com's reviewer wrote "Veronica Guerin is an adequate tribute that could, and should have been exceptional. But he didn't explain how. This is where a wonderful, exciting movie could have been exceptional. Cate Blanchett did a fantastic, Oscar-worthy job in the title role, and it's not her fault that the screenplay did not give her a chance to explain her motives.
Accents are no problem for the rest of the cast, as they are some of Ireland's top-notch actors. Gerard McSorley (In The Name of the Father), as the tough drug trafficker John Gilligan, turns in a stellar performance once again. Ciaran Hinds, as John Traynor (The Coach), is Veronica's chief informant. But can she count on all his information to be accurate? He is working for Gilligan, who is the only gangster Guerin does not supply with a nickname.
An earlier Irish film (2000), on the life of Veronica, called When The Sky Falls, starring American actress Joan Allen, did a slightly better job of explaining her motives, by having them discussed by her bosses at the Sunday Independant, her husband, and to some extent, her son. This movie did not even try, even though it had a great opportunity, with Oscar winner Brenda Fricker(My Left Foot), playing Veronica's mother. Watching their scenes together, you kept wondering when they would discuss her dangerous occupation? But it never came up.
This film is very accurate in using the real names and nicknames of the Drug Lords, and follows the true story of how Veronica's all-out effort to bring down the drug traffickers gets her in so much trouble. She is shot at in her home, and then shot in the thigh, and finally beaten up by drug dealer John Gilligan, who has her murdered, when she exposes him in her paper, despite his warnings that he would kill her if she did.
Other Irish crime movies that lead up to the Veronica Guerin era (1994 to 1996), are The General, starring Brendon Gleason, which I highly recommend, and Ordinary Decent Criminal, starring Kevin Spacey, which is one of the worst movies I have ever seen, so bad that it was not even released to theaters in this country. Both films are based on Martin Cahill (The General), Ireland's most famous regular criminal, who did not deal in drugs, but was interviewed by Veronica, before he was killed by the IRA in 1994.
Veronica Guerin, which I highly recommend, does contain some graphic violence, drug use, and much foul language, which you can excuse, when you know that's just the way they talk in Dublin. It is only 138 minutes long, but should have been longer. Those extra minutes could have been used to explain the Why's!
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