This biopic about the last two years in the life of crusading Irish journalist Veronica Guerin is serviceable but hardly riveting or inspirational. Blanchett performs admirably in the title role, but the film never really gets fully inside the character of this self-appointed investigator of the connections between organized crime and the growing drug problem in Dublin. We catch glimpses of what makes her tick – the movie provides hints that she sometimes puts the demands of her work over the needs of her family, and that her naivete allows her more gullibility than might be fitting for a hard-nosed journalist. Although celebrated in Ireland, Guerin’s name is less known on these shores, but the American filmmakers – director Joel Schumacher and producer Jerry Bruckheimer – take a generally restrained approach toward the telling of her life story. Another way of saying this is that the movie feels aloof, even though it manages to sustain viewer interest throughout. One of the problems may be that the movie begins with Guerin’s assassination in 1996. And then after showing us the conclusion, the movie goes back in time to witness the events of the previous two years and what led up to the need to have Guerin erased. The movie proceeds, Woodward-and-Bernstein fashion, to show us the steps of Guerin’s investigation, but this movie has little of the fervor of All the President’s Men. We see only snippets and get little sense of the grueling yearslong process of uncovering the money trail to the crime lords. And throughout it all, Guerin remains unrealistically upbeat and optimistic. Schumacher’s Dublin looks gritty and realistic (apart from a gratuitous cameo from Schumacher pal Colin Farrell), and the Bruckheimer tendency toward literal overkill is kept nicely in check. So, it’s hard to say what makes Veronica Guerin feel so distant and uninspiring. Maybe, it’s just as conventional wisdom has always said: Journalism is a dull and tedious business to put on the screen.
This article appears in October 17 • 2003.
