Veronica Guerin Review
by Harvey S. Karten (harveycritic AT cs DOT com)September 24th, 2003
VERONICA GUERIN
Reviewed by: Harvey S. Karten
Grade: B
Touchstone Pictures
Directed by: Joel Schumacher
Written by: Carol Doyle, Mary Agnes Donoghue, story by Carol Doyle
Cast: Cate Blanchett, Gerard McSorley, Ciaran Hinds, Brenda Frickler, Don Wycherley, Barry Barnes, Simon O'Driscoll Screened at: MGM, NYC, 9/23/03
The name "Veronica Guerin" is about as known by most Americans as Governor Davis of California is on the lips of most Dubliners which is to say, not very much. That could change if the latest Jerry Bruckheimer production directed by Joel Schumacher reaches a broad audience in the States. While the most dramatic activity in the life of the title character takes place in and about 1996, her story is not exactly pulled from today's headlines. Yet, in a way, when you consider the strong impact that fanatical suicide bombers have had in our country, willing to die for their cause despite the family ties that many have back home, you realize that this tale, written by Carol Coyle, Mary Agnes Donoghue from Ms. Doyle's story, is really about the nature of obsession. People have been willing to risk their lives for causes they hold dear, in some cases because of the promised reward in the afterlife, in others because their lives are meaningless if they cannot work toward the fulfillment of their missions. Veronica Guerin belongs to the latter group, and Schumacher's film, while not attempting to show exactly what in her background pushes her into the jaws of hell, does a fine job in dramatically documenting just what she accomplished and at what cost.
The Australian-born Cate Blanchett, affecting a remarkably accurate Irish accent while pursuing her goal with the frenetic energy of a middle-schooler on the last day of June, performs in the title role. A journalist who is the very opposite of former New York Times reporter Jayson Blair, she is not one to sit at a typewriter cutting-and-pasting stories from the internet and inventing composite characters to make her points. She is disgusted by the epidemic of heroin that has found its way into the arms of children, but even more offended by government paralysis. Though in the mid-1990's drug lords and their couriers have made inroads into the youthful population of Dublin, the government either does not care to take forceful action, nor is the population up in arms demanding that investigations be made, assets frozen, and pushers put away for a long time. In a sense, the Irish officials and people-at-large can be compared to the attitude in France toward the U.S. Iraq actions. "We're not affected, don't bother us, we're not getting involved."
Based on a true story with almost all gooey sentimentality eschewed, the film traces Guerin's struggle during the mid- 1990's to force the powers-that-be to come down strongly against the pushers not unlike the way Woodward and Bernstein's reportage on former President Nixon's plumbing operations in the Watergate Hotel led to the resignation of our nation's corrupt leader. Schumacher, filming on location in Dublin with a mostly Irish cast, does not invite audience suspense. Guerin is assassinated at the very opening by two gunmen on motorcycles in broad daylight and in moderate traffic, her killing an unfortunate move by the mob in that her martyrdom led the Irish people to display their anger in street demonstration. Flashback to Guerin's insistence on being where the action is on the crime beat rather than the fashion world to which women journalists might expect to be deployed.
The 35-year-old Guerin, whose life centers on both her husband and young child but even more on her journalistic crusade, most enjoys reporting on crime, her articles appearing on Sundays particularly about the spiraling heroin problem in Dublin. Establishing contacts with both the police and the criminal worlds, she gains considerable information from confessed criminal John Traynor (Ciaran Hinds), who talks more than he should have, enjoying the celebrity status her newspaper conferred on him. Through Traynor, Guerin ascertains that drug baron John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley), holds the key to toppling the crime syndicate. In the film's most dramatic scene, Guerin like Michael Moore who brashly moved right into the estate of Charlton Heston ("Bowling for Columbine") to sensationalize his crusade against firearm ownership does that best-selling author many steps better. Driving illegally right into his horse farm, she confronts the drug lord whose temper gets the best of him. Shot in the leg by an unknown assailant and later beaten severely, she fails to take the hint. Despite pleas from her editor, her husband, and by the criminals themselves, she plunges ahead as though possessed of a death wish, determined single-handedly to bring down the mob.
Despite the violence that informs the story, "Veronica Guerin" lacks the blockbuster emotions of typical Jerry Bruckheimer fare. This is no "Con Air," or "Armageddon," or even "Gone in 60 Seconds." In fact neither Bruckheimer nor Schumacher may realistically believe that a massive audience in the U.S. would attend a film so seriously conceived, authentic in ambience, and removed from most American concerns by its Ireland-based conceits. Despite Cate Blanchett's impressive and sincere performance, she comes across as aloof, pretty much a blank to the big question that thoughtful viewers may ask; namely, why is this attractive, intelligent woman not devoting more time to her husband and son and performing duties far beyond the requirements of her employer? Given her frequent guest appearances and newsworthy notes on TV, she could be "into" celebrity status, yet there is no particular evidence of this one way or the other. The thuggish drug pushers are exposed not as the witty criminals who get the best lines in typically American action-adventure movies. The dramatic treatment given here makes "Veronica Guerin" a better bet than a (heaven-forbid) talking-heads documentary. The film is well worth your time as a crusading, yet restrained and sincere work.
Rated R. 96 minutes.(c) 2003 by Harvey Karten at
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