Veronica Guerin was an Irish reporter with a tabloid newspaper in the early 90s. She got tired of doing somewhat dry reports on corporate corruption and decided to investigate the heavy drug trafficking and usage in Dublin’s slums. This is given to us in a clumsy opening of text shown on a black screen, never a sign of good storytelling and a rather ambiguous way to begin a movie. Anyway, we then see the extent to which Dublin’s poor and teenagers are addicted and the lengths they’re willing to go to protect themselves. A possible informer is virtually disemboweled for his transgressions. Veronica sees this, too, and is apparently affected enough to report on it.
As she begins to investigate, we see the forces against her. There’s John (Ciarin Hinds, great in his somewhat underdeveloped role), the informant whom we’re never sure can be trusted. There are her rival reporters who resent the attention she attracts to herself, her somewhat error prone writing, and her real training as an accountant. And of course, there are the drug traffickers themselves who don’t want to be caught and are perfectly willing to kill her to protect their small share.
Even her family doesn’t quite support her; her mother is nervous and her husband envies the time she spends on her case compared to him and their son. Eventually we begin to see the puzzle pieces go in place around a former convict, John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley), now passing himself off as a horse enthusiast. But will Veronica Guerin survive in her persistence; or will the drug traffickers kill her?
Considering that we pretty much know the answer to that question within the first ten minutes of the film, Schumacher’s goal is to make the events that follow seem important if we already know where they are going. For the most part he succeeds, I was never uninterested in what was going on and was fascinated where each new lead would go.
Schumacher has proven to be a wildly inconsistent director ranging from the ultra-bad Batman and Robin to the flashy, but empty Batman Forever to the pretty good Phone Booth. This is one of his better films, but he is still prone to the excesses of Batman and Robin. He has a tendency to cut too quickly from an involving scene between Veronica and her mother and he diffuses a potentially dramatic confrontation between Veronica and her husband about her neglecting of the family. Both of these scenes could have helped to show the reasons that Veronica Guerin was willing to put not only herself, but her family, in harm’s way. As it is, we are not given that opportunity to get to know this fascinating woman better.
Schumacher is also hampered by a musical score that doesn’t know when to stop. Every time I felt myself becoming emotionally involved, there was that blaring Irish folk music to contend with. Schumacher’s attempt to hammer home the message was also distracting through the last twenty overwrought, dirge-like minutes (which easily could have been trimmed to ten minutes).
Luckily, the acting saves the majority of this film. I don’t think enough can be said about Cate Blanchett’s ability to transform herself into any role she is given. From the mischievous twinkle in her eye as she asks loaded questions to her barely concealed fear after attacks on her home and self, we feel we know Guerin even if the script won’t let us. I also give credit to McSorley’s portrayal of the ruthless Gilligan. He never allows his one-dimensional character to become a seething parody of rage; instead, we see a determined frightening ruthlessness.
Veronica Guerin succeeds despite its problems. It is not a happy story like Erin Brockovich, it is a realistic one filled with moral ambiguities and danger. Even though Schumacher threatens to gloss over everything, this is Cate Blanchett’s show and she delivers.