Shadow Dancer (2013)
Average Rating: 7.1/10
Reviews Counted: 41
Fresh: 38 | Rotten: 3
No consensus yet.
Average Rating: N/A
Critic Reviews: 3
Fresh: 3 | Rotten: 0
want to see
User Ratings: 1,556
My Rating
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
May 31, 2013 Limited
Magnolia Pictures
- Official Site
Watch It Now
ADVERTISEMENT
Shadow Dancer Trailer & Photos
All Critics (45) | Top Critics (5) | Fresh (38) | Rotten (3)
While it's hard to grumble about such a smart, intelligent drama after a summer of big bangs, its slow pace at times feels sluggish.
Top CriticRiseborough gives a tremendously vulnerable and resolute turn as a protector at home and avenger abroad forced to reconsider the extent to which she is capable of avoiding the crossfire on all sides.
The occasional flareup of violence notwithstanding, it's Riseborough's performance that provides the primary source of suspense.
A sensitive film that respects the conflict in which it is set rather than using it for cheap thrills.
Director James Marsh fashions a taut thriller out of tough material, much of which pinwheels on a compelling central performance from Andrea Riseborough as a woman trapped in a tightening emotional vice.
Shadow Dancer is a quietly devastating story of the poisonous effect of northern Irish politics on the life of a single family.
This is a tough, thought-provoking nail-biter.
The film hardly seems like more than an exercise: the plot wraps up neatly but the emotional significance of a key revelation is barely explored.
Marsh improves the movie from the page to the screen. What's shown is often more striking than what's said, but in the perpetual subterfuge of Shadow Dancer that can't fully distinguish a familiar plot from its numerous predecessors.
This is an uncomfortable movie; a tense and sometimes deliberately drawn out tale - but those who invest the time will uncover some excellent performances.
Post-credits food-for-thought is a rarity in most films these days, and that it should come in the wrapper of a totally engrossing thriller is some kind of wonderful.
Riseborough once again astounds with her ability to inhabit a character, with Owen also on cracking form as the agent under fire from all sides.
...a slow burning and engrossing film that demonstrates the morally caustic nature of terrorism.
Marsh's Shadow Dancer is a complex and beautifully realised Irish Troubles thriller of cerebral and psychological proportions.
Like Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy, this thriller refuses to burst out into action mode, preferring to keep its thrills cerebral
Marsh's film brilliantly evokes the fearful, morbid undercurrent to Belfast in the last years of the conflict - a place where life and death could pivot on a wrong answer.
After the simple, lucid start, the film becomes a labyrinthine tale of cat and mouse, of deception and double cross, of betrayal and confused allegiances.
Though reluctant to engage too closely with the still-controversial politics of dissent, Shadow Dancer works brilliantly as a displaced espionage drama.
Man on Wire director James Marsh has come up with a thriller that's as taut as his earlier film, and whose protagonist is striving to pull off a balancing act that's no less perilous than his aerialist hero's high-wire stunts.
Even the marvelous performances by Owen and the on-the-rise Riseborough are not enough to ratchet up the drama to the level of the totally gripping -- a damn shame and something of a puzzler...
A thriller needs to thrill, and this one doesn't.
Director James Marsh is an award-winning documentary film-maker and he brings some finely honed observational skills to this tale.
This is Rolls-Royce genre entertainment. Hard-hitting, thought-provoking, tense, memorable.
Audience Reviews for Shadow Dancer
Super Reviewer
Super Reviewer
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for Shadow Dancer yet.
Latest News on Shadow Dancer
April 30, 2013:
Digital Multiplex: Jack Reacher, Mama and MoreThis week in streaming, we've got a Tom Cruise actioner, an effective fright flick, a thriller...
What's Hot On RT
Movies Directed by Tyler Perry
Blockbuster news and reviews
Ellen Page in an intriguing new thriller
A gallery of classic books on film
Featured on RT
- Total Recall: Movies Directed by Tyler Perry 39
- Parental Guidance: The Great Gatsby, Jack Reacher, and Safe Haven 5
- Video Interview: Aftershock Producer Eli Roth 3
- Ray Harryhausen: 1920-2013 32
- Digital Multiplex: Cloud Atlas, Pulp Fiction and more 4
- RT on DVD and Blu-Ray: Jack Reacher, Mama, and Upstream Color 34
- Box Office Guru Wrapup: Iron Man 3 Soars Above the Rest 64
Top Headlines
-
Baz Luhrmann Wants DiCaprio for Hamlet
1
-
Bryan Singer Shooting X-Men: Days of Future Past in 3D and Simul-Cam
0
-
Avatar Sequels Shooting in 2014
2
-
Shane Black Confirmed for Doc Savage
0
-
Warner Bros. Plans New Dungeons & Dragons Movie
4
-
Adam Scott in Talks for Hot Tub Time Machine 2
0
-
Summit Already Thinking About Divergent Sequel
1
Fresh Links
Featured
10 Best Movie Trilogies
Pretty self-explanatory here; HitFix offers up their favorite trilogies of all time.
10 Jilted Movie Grooms
Feeling a little sappy? Here are 10 movie grooms who were left at the altar.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
50 Youth-Gone-Wild Movies
TimeOut lists the best movies about youth and rebellion.
30 Greatest Rock & Roll Movie Moments
Rolling Stone boldly proclaims the rockin'-est moments in cinema.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
