The story of Veronica Guerin was one I was vaguely familiar with before seeing this movie. Cate Blanchett gives an admirable performance in the lead role but that's where the praise ends.
There was no effort to develop the characters whatsoever. It would be easy to think, having watched the movie, that Guerin was a terrible mother, a selfish wife, an infuriating daughter and a shoddy journalist. There was little to endear her to the viewer, or at least the viewer who isn't already familiar with the story of her life, her work and the tragic end of her life.
There was a fistful of over-acted portrayals of the criminals in the piece and little development of some of the key relationships, making the real-life grit and toil which Guerin applied to her work seemingly non-existent or worse, based on a nice smile, a short skirt and a quick flirt.
It was fun to see her discuss the merits of Cantona, for example, but that screen time would have been far better spent giving us some background as to why the copper was happy to allow her carte blanche access to police files or why "The Coach" felt compelled to spill the beans on his criminal activities at every available opportunity.
A story as compelling as this should be truly moving, she was, after all, the instigator in saving the lives of countless thousands and paid the ultimate price in doing so, but the greatest emotion of those I watched it with was relief that it was over. That shouldn't be the legacy of the story of Veronica Guerin.
This could have been a terrific movie. It's not. In fact, it's not even close. She deserves so much more, so do you.
There was no effort to develop the characters whatsoever. It would be easy to think, having watched the movie, that Guerin was a terrible mother, a selfish wife, an infuriating daughter and a shoddy journalist. There was little to endear her to the viewer, or at least the viewer who isn't already familiar with the story of her life, her work and the tragic end of her life.
There was a fistful of over-acted portrayals of the criminals in the piece and little development of some of the key relationships, making the real-life grit and toil which Guerin applied to her work seemingly non-existent or worse, based on a nice smile, a short skirt and a quick flirt.
It was fun to see her discuss the merits of Cantona, for example, but that screen time would have been far better spent giving us some background as to why the copper was happy to allow her carte blanche access to police files or why "The Coach" felt compelled to spill the beans on his criminal activities at every available opportunity.
A story as compelling as this should be truly moving, she was, after all, the instigator in saving the lives of countless thousands and paid the ultimate price in doing so, but the greatest emotion of those I watched it with was relief that it was over. That shouldn't be the legacy of the story of Veronica Guerin.
This could have been a terrific movie. It's not. In fact, it's not even close. She deserves so much more, so do you.