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REVIEWSPREVIEWS: Veronica Guerin
An absolutely sterling performance from the Australian queen of cinema, Cate Blanchett proves once again why she is the top draw amongst Hollywood’s elite. The one-time Oscar nominee stars in the title role as one of Ireland’s most famous crime reporters.
Veronica Guerin revolves around the last two years of Veronica, a truth-hungry journalist who pays with her life. The story is told in flashback form, starting with Veronica’s murder in 1996. The events that led up to this tragic conclusion are then recollected from the time when Veronica witnessed children playing with hypodermic needles in Dublin’s slums. From that moment, this award-winning reporter for Dublin’s Sunday Independent starts interviewing addicts and small-time thugs. Her pursuit for the perfect story leads her to discover the fiercely protected inner circle of drug kingpins, controlled by the viciously powerful John Gilligan.
The story soon becomes Veronica’s obsession, which eventually overshadows her duties as a wife and mother. After several threats and violent beatings, she is killed by the gangsters she tries to expose.
Produced and directed by the dynamic duo of Jerry Bruckheimer and Joel Schumacher, this crime gangster drama also includes Colin Farrell and Oscar winner Brenda Ficker. But above all, it is Blanchett’s magnetic performance that glues you to the screen throughout the length of the movie.—Atif Khan
The Missing
Based on the novel The Last Ride by Thomas Eidson, a girl is abducted by an outlaw group of Apaches, headed by a brave-cum-witch doctor, and it is suspected that the girl will be sold into slavery as soon as the brigands arrive in Mexico. Fortunately, on their trail is an old time do-gooder, Tommy Lee Jones, who left his family years ago to live like the Indians.
The Missing has the imprint of an all too familiar ‘B’ grade western made 40 years ago, stamped all over it. It seems way out of its time and even though it does present some really good moments, in comparison, Open Range is a much better film for fans of the western genre.—Mohammad Kamran Jawaid
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