Shadow Dancer

Film (2012)

With Andrea Riseborough (Collette), Clive Owen (Mac), Barry Barnes (Gerry Senior), Maria Laird (Young Collette), Ben Smyth (Sean), Brid Brennan (Ma), Jamie Scott (Young Gerry), Bradley Burke (Young Connor), Morgan Watkins (MI5 Officer), Cathal Maguire (Mark), Aidan Gillen (Gerry), Domhnall Gleeson (Connor), Michael McElhatton (Liam Hughes), Gillian Anderson (Kate Fletcher), David Wilmot (Kevin Mulville)

Imagine a cross between The Wire and Homeland set among members of the Irish Republican Army and you will get the flavor of this suspenseful, but sad, tale about families, espionage and double-dealing in a war torn country.

Collette (Andrea Riseborough) is a member of a Catholic family in Protestant Belfast and surrounded by terror and secrets at every turn. Naturally, she is bound up in all of it, one way or another. But she has a son, and the demands of preservation call out to her. But preservation in a deeply embattled society is what this film is all about, and it shows forcefully how little actually is preserved when tragedy and sacrifice come so close to home.

The camera lingers endlessly on Riseborough’s beautifully penetrating gaze. Her face is magnetic, and certainly worth the attention, and Riseborough manages to convey, through the nuances of it, the requisite combination of utter vulnerability and stridently rebellious determination.

Clive Owen (Mac) is a British agent who holds down the rugged, dogged and determined corner with assurance.

David Wilmot (Kevin Mulville) as a golden haired IRA leader is particularly chilling.

There is a kiss that Collette bestows at one point that is unsettling – aggressive, passionate, strange – which, in some way, sets the tone of the film.

This is more of a social tragedy than a thriller. Posing as the latter but embodying the former, it strikes a pose, indeed, very much like that of The Wire.

– BADMan