A moving but gritty story of willpower and sacrifice that stops pleasingly short of a Hollywood varnish-job.
Veronica Guerin (2003)
Tomatometer
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Reviews Counted:134
Fresh:72
Rotten:62
Average Rating:5.9/10
Consensus: Cate Blanchett gives another great performance in a movie that doesn't shed much light on its title character.
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Dramas
Synopsis: VERONICA GUERIN, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joel Schumacher, is the true story of the tenacious Irish crime reporter (Cate Blanchett) who exposed the brutal drug trade in 1990s... VERONICA GUERIN, produced by Jerry Bruckheimer and directed by Joel Schumacher, is the true story of the tenacious Irish crime reporter (Cate Blanchett) who exposed the brutal drug trade in 1990s Dublin. Veronica Guerin's intense dedication to her journalism, reckless hunger for the truth, and profound sense of social responsibility is grippingly portrayed by Blanchett in a magnetic performance. Told in flashback, the film begins at the moment of her brutal assassination in 1996 and moves backwards, telling the story of the last two years of her life. A competitive journalist with no drug background, Veronica started her fierce campaign against Dublin's drug trade after witnessing young children playing with hypodermic needles in the city's slums. At that moment she started interviewing addicts and small-time thugs and what she discovered eventually led her into a fiercely protected inner circle of drug kingpins, controlled by the viciously powerful John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley). What began as a search for a story became Veronica's obsession. Her quest overshadowed her duties as a wife and mother and eventually threatened the lives of her husband and child. Heroic yet reckless, she persevered, and after threats and violent beatings she was assassinated by the very gangsters she threatened to expose. [More]
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Gerard McSorley, Ciaran Hinds, Brenda Fricker
Starring: Cate Blanchett, Gerard McSorley, Ciaran Hinds, Brenda Fricker
Director: Joel Schumacher
Director: Joel Schumacher
Screenwriter: Carol Doyle, Mary Agnes Donoghue
Story: Carol Doyle
Producer: Jerry Bruckheimer
Composer: Harry Gregson-Williams
Studio: Touchstone Pictures
Reviews for Veronica Guerin
Cate Blanchett is a vital presence as Veronica and should have romantic teenagers lining up to get into journalism school.
Blanchett holds the film together gorgeously.... Because of this, you can almost forgive Schumacher for badly over-egging the story.
A big and glossy piece of crap that seems to be using the right tricks to get us teary-eyed, but hasn't got any heart.
Well-acted and worthy, but ultimately rather dull movie, let down by a half-hearted script and a sudden climactic dive into sentimentality.
The film crams in every modern Oirish cliche in the book and Cate Blanchett gives a supercilious and queenly impersonation of what she and director Joel Schumacher imagine to be a twinkle-eyed force of nature.
Ultimately descends into the kind of tabloid sensationalism surely not befitting the no-nonsense journalist.
Blanchett gets the accent impeccably, and encompasses both the woman's determined heroism and her delight in the picture byline, but neither she nor the screenplay digs any deeper than secular hagiography.
These complaints are mere nitpicks since we are dealing with a film that can inspire viewers to reexamine their lives, not to mention offer them a bitchin’ cameo Colin Farrell.
Blanchett's brilliant performance captures the essence of this brave, brash Irish icon.
Sporting a perfect Irish accent, [Cate Blanchett] imbues the character with a lot more presence than the script (and the director?) called for.
Tales of positive change and outcry in the face of death are always dicey propositions in film, but Joel Schumacher treats the story with reverence and creates haunting drama.
While this is a movie that deserves a mildly favourable recommendation, it's also nothing short of a catastrophic fumble and an incredible lost opportunity.
Journalists don't usually get much respect at the movies, but Veronica Guerin is successful in its straight-up retelling of the true story of a journalist who turned into a modern-day martyr.
This powerful docudrama is a little like Norma Rae with a dark Irish ending...Cate Blanchett gives a riveting performance.
Cate Blanchett is most likely the greatest actress working in film today.
Latest News for Veronica Guerin
May 11, 2005:
Fox Searchlight to Do a "Scandal" with Blanchett & Dench
From the pages of Variety comes news of the timely drama "Notes From a Scandal," which is based on Zoe Heller's novel "What Was She Thinking?" Cate Blanchett... More...
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