Can Danny Boyle get any better? I say the man's a genius. The director of this movie, as well as Trainspotting, Boyle really gets inside his characters.Why is this movie so good? Well, let me give you an idea.
Although the premise of people coming into money and then fighting over it has been done before, there is no better movie than Shallow Grave to show just exactly how money can really drive you crazy. Boyle gets inside the heads of his three main characters, Alex, Juliet and David.
The story goes a little like this: The three flatmates are looking for a fourth to rent out a room. They rent it to Hugo, who ends up naked on the bed, dead. Alex discovers a suitcase with enough money to buy a small island in it. The three want the money, but have to somehow get rid of the body. So they hack it into bits, removing the hands, feet and teeth,and dump the body in the forest.
David, the seemingly sane one, had to do all the chopping up of body parts, and after doing that, completely goes off his rocker, moves into the attic and drills holes in the ceiling to keep an eye on Juliet and Alex.
The movie is a tad disturbing (the body counts ends up to be approximately four) yet it isn't as gory as it could've been. The performances by Ewan Macgregor as Alex Law, Kerry Fox as Juliet Miller and Christopher Eccleston as David Stephens are remarkably great. This movie draws you right into it, as I can attest. While watching it with a friend, we both realized how engrossed we were in the movie, because we were sitting only a foot from the screen, enthralled by the story. (or was it Ewan Macgregor?). But the movie grabs you at the beginning and keeps a firm hold until the plot twist at the end. My adivce: RENT IT!