Saw this again last night. It's one of those films that stays with you after it's finished.The story's clear enough although there some fairly serious plot holes, though not enough to derail the film as a whole. And it means introducing spoilers...It's really the ending which is confusing. Mac phones the mother and says 'They're coming for Colette'. Next scene a car draws up and the mother simply walks out and gets in. You'd be forgiven for thinking that the car had come for Colette. But the mother offers no explanation as to why she's come out and not Colette... which means it was her they were expecting.Listening to the commentary over it later all becomes clear. The director makes it clear that what Mac really meant was 'They're closing in on Colette'. Then he tells the mother that her daughter was recruited to protect her, the first and main informant. That puts her in the awful position of having to sacrifice herself in order to save her daughter. Off-screen she must have made a call and given herself up, which is why the car came for her, not Colette.Apparently they wrote 50+ versions of the end and one supposes it all became a bit confused. But that's how creative endeavors often play out. And we have to assume the bomb in Mac's car was put there by Colette, he having rejected her physically, though not as an agent. While he was walking about (the woman with the dog wasn't her) she must have sneaked it in unseen somehow. That was her thing, after all, a bomber.There's also the question of how they got the mother to agree to betray her whole family. Did they let her 3 children carry on bombing and killing? Or did they promise, in return for information, not to harm them? That really is quite a hole, I think.But, apart from that, it is a hell of a film. Some found it slow but that's the nature of undercover films. They aren't action films, they rely on tension, betrayal, never knowing if or when the axe will fall. Above all, the staging is so true to life as to be painful. Apparently real-life IRA informants have said that too. Really, that whole war, if one wants to call it that, was a very sad, nasty, unpleasant business. And, of course, the IRA rang rings round the organised and trained British army. Just like the Vietcong and the Afghans did to the American forces in their home territories. Beautifully acted and beautifully shot, it's an anguishing but truthful film.

"Shadow Dancer" from 2012 stars Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, and Gillian Anderson. I'm not sure what the situation with this movie was because it only made $400,000.The movie takes place in Belfast, and in the first scene, a young girl, Collette, is told by her father to buy him some cigarettes. She doesn't want to go, so instead, she sends her little brother Sean.The action then shifts to 1993, and we see the adult Collette (Riseborough) deliberately leaving her purse in the London tube; as she escapes from the tube, she is arrested. An MI-5 agent, Mac (Owen) offers her a deal -- no prison time if she will become an informant and at the end of her time working for him, a new identity. Because she has a young son, she agrees.Mac ultimately learns that his superior (Anderson) is using Collette as a red herring to protect her own mole inside the Irish organization. Mac tries to find out who the mole is and remove Collette from a dangerous situation.This movie is sparse on dialogue and, frankly, action, particularly at the beginning as we see Collette on what seems to be an endless train ride and finally dropping her purse. After that, things pick up. The cinematography is dreary, with Ireland looking like it's one step up from a trailer park in most scenes.Andrea Riseborough, who can be beautiful and glamorous, is photographed harshly here, and she's excellent as a young woman caught in the nightmare of having to betray her brothers and answer to their trigger-happy leader Kevin (David Wilmot) and to Mac. She is natural and realistic in underplaying the role of a young Irish girl under incredible tension. Owen is good as the protective Mac, tough and persuasive.The big problem is the lack of family connection, that is, Collette's relationship with her worried mother and her brothers, who are entrenched in a violent world. Shadow Dancer concentrates on the relationship between Mac and Collette, where showing more within the family would have brought us into the film more deeply.We're led to believe certain things in "Shadow Dancer," and it's not until the end of the movie that we realize what a good script it was, and how well it is directed by James Marsh.A sober movie showing the impact of violence and stress on one family.

This was an excellent and taut thriller or espionage film. There is a tension through-out that keeps one on edge. Its' very well acted by Maria Laird who portrays an individual strained and being pulled in several directions. Her performance is subtle and she is visibly feeling the stress without displaying undue emotion. It is a quiet film that grows on you and is never over-acted (no Hollywood pyrotechnics). Clive Owen role was more like that of a supporting actor – the focus is own Maria Laird. Her performance holds our attention throughout as we don't know what is around the corner.The ending is a surprise but a fitting denouement. When you play with fire it can burn.

There have been more than a few films about the Irish "Troubles" ranging from from the idealistic ("The Hunger") to the melodramatic ("In the Name of the Father") to the tragic ("Sunday Bloody Sunday") and the historic ("Michael Collins"). But "Shadow Dancer" shines as a legitimate suspense thriller built upon convincingly realistic circumstances. There's an intro giving us character development, motive, etc., that captivates but in hindsight might be better left out. There's also a brief -and most surprising- romantic interlude that at first seems an unneeded diversion but actually has some impact on the end product. But what's intriguing about "Shadow Dancer" is the gritty, mundane realism of overcast Northern Ireland and depressing Belfast lives. The film is thankfully devoid of emotional screes on British repression, Irish solidarity, sacrifice and loss. Plot knots are skillfully tied. Just a taunt, believable thriller with some minor action sequences made without pomp and upon a modest budget. Would've been plenty more satisfied paying $20 for ticket and popcorn for "Shadow Dancer" than for the mega-plex junk my kids drag me to. Andrea Riseborough is easy on the eyes too.