REVIEWS
» Shadow Dancer p8 » Keep The Lights On p12 » My Brother The Devil p12
Reviews edited by Mark Adams
mark.adams@
screendaily.com
» Extremely Loud & Incredibly Close p14 » For Ellen p18 » Zarafa p20
Shadow Dancer REVIEWED BY MIKE GOODRIDGE
James Marsh’s Shadow Dancer is a taut, morally tangled thriller that weaves a tortured web of betrayals in the midst of the burgeoning peace process in 1993 Belfast. Expertly directed and paced by Marsh, and boasting another riveting lead performance from rising UK star Andrea Riseborough, the film is neither didactic nor edu- cational, and could be the first ‘Troubles’ film in years to make a dent at the box office. The film screened at Sundance and has landed
a high-profile out-of-competition slot here in Ber- lin, attesting to Marsh’s rising stock as a world- class narrative film-maker and hinting at the warm reception the film is likely to receive with critics and audiences when it reaches theatres. Maybe it takes the distance of a decade or more for successful films to emerge about conflicts as entrenched as Northern Ireland. Adapted by former TV correspondent Tom
Bradby from his own novel, the film is the story of a few characters that is symbolic of the larger strife. A prologue in 1973 shows how a young girl, Collette McVeigh, sends her little brother off on an errand she is meant to fulfil and watches in horror as he is killed in a crossfire of bullets. Twenty years later, the adult Collette (Risebor-
ough) has become a radical IRA member working with a highly active cell run by her other brothers Gerry (Gillen) and Conor (Gleeson). On a mission to plant a bomb on the London Underground, she
n 8 Screen International at the Berlinale February 9, 2012 OUT OF COMPETITION
Ire-UK-Fr. 2012. 100mins Director James Marsh Production companies Element Pictures, Wild Bunch, Unanimous Entertainment International sales Wild Bunch,
www.wildbunch.biz Producers Chris Coen, Andrew Lowe, Ed Guiney Executive producers Joe Oppenheimer, Brahim Chioua, Norman Merry, Vincent Maraval, Tom Bradby, Rita Dagher Screenplay Tom Bradby, based on his novel Cinematography Rob Hardy Production designer Jon Henson Editor Jinx Godfrey Main cast Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, Aidan Gillen, Domhnall Gleeson, Gillian Anderson, Brid Brennan, David Wilmot
is detained by MI5, and an officer named Mac (Owen) offers her a choice: go to prison for 25 years and lose her young son forever, or return to Belfast and act as an informer about Gerry and Conor’s activities. Forced to turn against her own blood and her
deepest beliefs, Collette lets Mac know about an impending assassination attempt on an RUC officer but, when the plot is ambushed, Collette finds herself under suspicion of the ruthless IRA enforcer Kevin Mulville (Wilmot), while Mac starts to suspect MI5 is using Collette as a sacrifi- cial lamb to protect another informer. Each character is given no choice but to betray either their beliefs or their loved ones, and the
story illustrates the cost of the conflict as each side made gains by tearing apart families and destroying lives. Marsh, who made an assured narrative debut
with The King in 2005 and directed the best of the Red Riding trilogy in 2009, does his most impressive work to date in Shadow Dancer, hit- ting the beats of a thriller while getting into the psychology of a war zone. He is assisted by a fine cast. Clive Owen does
strong work as the naïve Mac, Gillian Anderson is a breezily sinister MI5 chief, Brid Brennan is moving as the long-suffering McVeigh matriarch while David Wilmot is terrifically menacing as the merciless Mulville.
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56 |
Page 57 |
Page 58 |
Page 59 |
Page 60 |
Page 61 |
Page 62 |
Page 63 |
Page 64