Shadow Dancer (2013)
Average Rating: 6.9/10
Reviews Counted: 83
Fresh: 67 | Rotten: 16
A tense, thought-provoking thriller, Shadow Dancer is bolstered by sensitive direction from James Marsh and a terrific performance from Andrea Riseborough.
Average Rating: 6/10
Critic Reviews: 20
Fresh: 13 | Rotten: 7
A tense, thought-provoking thriller, Shadow Dancer is bolstered by sensitive direction from James Marsh and a terrific performance from Andrea Riseborough.
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Average Rating: 3.3/5
User Ratings: 5,466
Movie Info
Single mother Collette McVeigh is a Republican living in Belfast with her mother and hardliner IRA brothers. When she is arrested for her part in an aborted IRA bomb plot in London, an MI5 officer (Mac) offers her a choice: lose everything and go to prison for 25 years or return to Belfast to spy on her own family. With her son's life in her hands, Collette chooses to place her trust in Mac and return home, but when her brothers' secret operation is ambushed, suspicions of an informant are
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Cast
-
Andrea Riseborough
Collette -
Clive Owen
Mac -
Aidan Gillen
Gerry -
Domhnall Gleeson
Connor -
Gillian Anderson
Kate Fletcher -
Maria Laird
Young Collette -
Ben Smyth
Sean -
Brid Brennan
Ma -
Jamie Scott
Young Gerry -
Bradley Burke
Young Connor -
Daniel Tatarsky
Watcher 1 -
Tom Bennett
Watcher 2 -
Nia Gwynne
Female Watcher -
Jason Salkey
Agent 1 -
Nicholas Asbury
Agent 2 -
Morgan Watkins
MI5 Officer -
Cathal Maguire
Mark -
Ian Patterson
News Reporter -
Michael McElhatton
Liam Hughes -
David Wilmot
Kevin Mulville -
Alan O'Neill
RUC Officer -
Gary Lydon
Geoff -
David Herlihy
Senior Staff Officer -
Stuart Graham
Ian Gilmore -
Martin McCann
Brendan -
Anne Brogan
Bridget/Safehouse Wo... -
Frank Smith
Henderson -
Kate Nic Chonaonaigh
Henderson Wife -
Karl Shiels
Mulville's Driver/Gu... -
Mark Huberman
RUC Officer at Hospi... -
Lisa Walsh
Brendan's Girlfriend -
Ronnie McCann
RUC Constable -
Eoin Murtagh
Fletcher's Son -
Alan Devine
Social Club Barman
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Shadow Dancer Trailer & Photos
All Critics (83) | Top Critics (20) | Fresh (67) | Rotten (16)
The film relies on terse dialogue and boggy colors to create an atmosphere dense with anxiety -- all well handled by director James March.
Top CriticA respectable political/psychological suspenser, but not a wildly entertaining or enjoyable one.
A tautly minimalist, occasionally generic study of betrayal and family ties.
[Riseborough's] work is indrawn and riveting. It's hard to read the look in her eye, but we never stop trying.
This British thriller by James Marsh is a little too neatly scripted and tightly edited for my taste, but there are galvanizing performances from Andrea Riseborough... and Clive Owen.
These are characters for whom true belief in a cause has probably become impossible; they know how much that costs. Marsh does a compelling job of illustrating that for the rest of us.
Despite solid performances, a slow first half takes away from this otherwise effective drama about an IRA sympathizer whose life becomes more complicated after she's coerced into spying for MI-5.
It's absorbing, intelligent and sad.
Themes ripped from today's headlines lend "The Troubles" of Northern Ireland very tense, sobering, contemporary immediacy. . . Riseborough [is] mesmerizing at first sight.
[Director James Marsh] shows a deft hand with his actors and elicits a notable performance from [Andrea] Riseborough. The production is straightforward on all fronts and catches the bleakness hovering above Belfast under siege.
Marsh focuses this slowly simmering drama on more universal themes of family, betrayal and decisions that people make that are both right and wrong at the same time.
a potent, ultimately disheartening slow-burn drama
So many situations and plot points seem too sketchy here, but the two main characters manage to intrigue us, thanks to Andrea Riseborough and Clive Owen.
...a quietly disturbing look at the choices placed before someone who is caught between two worlds, neither offering harbor.
Shadow Dancer is a quiet film that demands careful attention...
By keeping politics in the background and emphasizing more than a few tenuous relationships, he allows the conflict, mistrust, and dishonesty in both Collette's and Mac's camps to come through without taking sides.
Dead-serious but also rather deadly is this IRA thriller, too intent on being portentous rather than riveting.
The only poetry in this harsh film is in the title.
The movie is sure-footed in its storytelling, right up to its appropriately open-ended conclusion.
Audience Reviews for Shadow Dancer
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