Veronica Guerin

Ireland's most beloved and tragic contemporary hero/martyr gets the Hollywood treatment in the fact-based thriller Veronica Guerin, an average film made recommendable for a fine performance by Cate Blanchett in the title role. The life, work, and assassination of the slain Irish journalist is respectfully chronicled in this gritty, streetwise biopic by director Joel Schumacher, beginning with her 1996 murder (by Irish gangsters) and flashing back to her diligent efforts, begun in 1994, to expose the drug trade that plagued Ireland for most of the decade. Blanchett is flawless in a role that combines passion, courage, and recklessness in a way that doesn't sugar-coat Guerin's character or imbue her with artificial heroics. Unfortunately, Schumacher (who makes room for an unbilled Colin Farrell cameo) and a naggingly unsophisticated screenplay turn Guerin's complex story into a conventionally accessible thriller that sometimes seems too good to be true, which is ironic given that Guerin's story was fictionalized in the marginally better 2000 film When the Sky Falls, starring Joan Allen. Recommendable for Blanchett's performance and two memorably villainous roles for Ciarán Hinds and Gerald McSorley, Veronica Guerin is an adequate tribute that could and should have been exceptional. --Jeff Shannon