"Why would anyone want to kill Veronica Guerin?"

Veronica Guerin (2003): 5/10

Poster (c) Touchstone Pictures

Veronica Guerin could have been an amazing movie. It could have been a movie that made us feel so passionately about the main character that even if we didn't agree with her, we'd still root for her. It could have had a very suspenseful overtone to it, to put us into the title character's shoes. It could have had more developed characters who don't just randomly pop in and out that weren't hard enough to follow as they were with their strong accents. Unfortunately, it wasn't.

Cate Blanchett plays the title role, a journalist for a large Irish newspaper. She's known for writing stories that unmask corporate criminals and scandals and the like. She decides to investigate drug dealers and winds up way over her head, as she is targeted by those high up in the drug ring. Guerin then must struggle for her safety, the safety of her family, but also must get the article out in time.

Veronica Guerin has an interesting enough (true) story to go by. The life of a reporter may be overused a bit, but with a twist like this one, it could be pulled off as something thrilling, trippy, or both. However, it just turned out to be mediocre. It's not really thrilling because since it's based on a true story, you hear what happens. Also, director Joel Schumacher uses the once-fashionable-now-tired use of having a short scene from the end of the movie played at the beginning. That always annoys me, because you'll know what will happen. Perhaps this movie could have been played with more of Guerin's mental anguish. I think it would be pretty hard to go through a situation like hers and not have some sort of breakdown. Alas, it doesn't encompass either of the two things that could have made this movie so good.

Any story there was hard to follow because not only were the accents hard to understand, there were too many characters thrown in there, barely talked about, and then becoming an important part of the movie. Soon-to-fade it-boy Colin Farrell has one scene in which he seems like he'll be so important to the plot he'll come back later. Yet he's never seen again. Blanchett commands her role, however, playing all facets of Guerin that Schumacher would allow perfectly. Not only does it show her neo-feminism strength, but also her vulnerability. The rest of the cast, no-names to me, seem to be fine, nothing more, nothing less.

Just like a past love or deciding whether to rent Adaptation or Ballistic: Ecks vs. Sever, Schumacher could have made a great movie dealing with the perils of a journalist. But he didn't, and what we get from it is a so-so, partially interesting dramatic "thriller".

Rated R for violence, language and some drug content.

Review Date: March 27, 2004