Gains energy and credibility from skillful acting by a largely Irish cast.
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.
Rated: R [See Full Rating] for violence, language and some drug content
Runtime: 1 hr 38 mins
Genre: Dramas
Theatrical Release:Oct 17, 2003 Limited
Box Office: $1,511,180
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
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Release:
Mar 16, 2004
Reviews for Veronica Guerin
Veronica Guerin depicts the efforts of a crusading journalist in Dublin who does the right thing for the wrong reasons as she tries single-handedly to bring down the city's drug trade.
With this movie, Cate Blanchett adds another fine performance to her resume.
A by-the-book, inspirational piece of Hollywood storytelling that tells you where it's headed in the first few minutes and manages to stay engaging until the end.
A good story, told with the usual Jerry Bruckheimer-Joel Schumacher glibness/pseudo-social concern.
Veronica Guerin is an inspiring biopic. It just isn't much of a thriller.
Ignore the Irish fiddle and tin-whistle score and settle in for a compelling and intense story.
Veronica Guerin succeeds as a memorial to a gutsy journalist who changed a country.
The film’s laughably hokey and naïve coda leads us to believe that, as a result of Guerin’s efforts, drugs were forever banished from Dublin.
...you're provided with a visceral sense of why 'everyone in Ireland remembers where they were when they heard Veronica Guerin was killed.'
Mr. T in a pert blonde wig with a dialect tape could have squeaked by in this sort of stock characterization -- 'Yo, foo', I'm da benevolent voice o' troof!'
Cate Blanchett is most likely the greatest actress working in film today.
Fairly typical Schumacher fare in that it looks okay in an over-processed sort of way, tackles middlebrow concerns with a middlebrow squeamishness, and sucks.
As the story progresses, I would expect an edge of cynicism and caution to enter Guerin's character but Blanchett plays it with an upbeat, optimistic air to the very end.
A high-brow docudrama, but one that doesn't transcend the conventions of the genre.
I thought the ending was ladled with an extra helping of sentiment that wasn’t really necessary, but it doesn’t detract from Blanchett’s amazing performance, and the power of this story.
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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