I can remember seeing Joel Schumacher's Veronica Guerin when I was first allowed to start checking out R rated, more intense fare. Being far more impressionable that the desensitized veteran you see before you today, I had a royal emotional gut punch coming that I wasn't even prepared for. I didn't know what it was about or what I would see, all I knew was I loved watching movies and I was going to devour each and every one I could get my hands on. Well, it tells the true and very tragic story of Veronica Guerin, an incredibly fearless Irish journalist who almost singlehandedly waged war on the drug trade back in 1996. It's a suicidal mission that involves hassling very dangerous people, putting her and her family's lives in jeopardy and overturning stones that lead to nothing but trouble. But she won't back down for a second, and Blanchett finds the noble belligerence in her. Now anyone who knows the story also knows that later in life she was assassinated, by order of the very same drug lord she was trying to take down, John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley). I feel like it isn't really a spoiler and should be spoken of in a review, as it's a huge beat and the essential part of the film. Poke the hornet's nest and you're liable to get stung, it's just a shame that no one on her side could have done more to protect her and prevent the outcome, but when you have one woman crusading against both evil and casually corrupt indifference then I suppose she's on her own anyway. "" is a chilling monster, an absolute sociopathic maniac who will go to any lengths of cruelty and darkness to keep his empire, and McSorley will give you shudders with his portrayal. Ciaran Hinds is great as sleazy and slightly conflicted John Traynor, an underworld informant who fed Veronica information and played a big part in her story. Colin Farrell shows up in an odd and completely random cameo, and watch for Brenda Fricker too. The end of the film and the events surrounding her death are intoned with a haunting musical montage, and I dare you not to burst into to tears or be swept away and deeply affected by Schumacher's tender direction, the cast's work and the sheer tragedy of it all. There's another film about Guerin called When The Sky Falls with Joan Allen, and it's worth a look, but this is the real deal, going to great pains to show the personal nature of Veronica's quest, how much it meant to her, the sickness of a nation infected with drug addiction and corruption, and the game changing power which one human being can have over it all, even if they must sacrifice their life for it. Powerful stuff.

American screenwriter, film producer and director Joel Schumacher's eighteenth feature film which was written by American screenwriter and director Mary Agnes Donoghue and Irish screenwriter Carol Doyle, is inspired by the life of an Irish journalist named Veronica Guerin (1958-1996). It was screened in the Viacom Galas section at the 27th Toronto International Film Festival in 2003, was shot on locations in Ireland and is a USA-UK-Ireland co-production which was produced by American producer Jerry Bruckheimer. It tells the story about Veronica Guerin, a driven reporter for a newspaper in Dublin called the Sunday Independent who in 1994 begins writing about drug-related crimes.Finely and engagingly directed by American filmmaker Joel Schumacher, this finely tuned and somewhat fictionalized story which is narrated mostly from the main character's point of view, draws an involving portrayal of a courageous and compassionate wife and mother who puts her life on the line to take down the drug lords in her city. While notable for it's naturalistic milieu depictions and fine cinematography by Irish cinematographer Brendan Galvin, this character-driven and dramatic homage depicts an empathic study of character and contains a great score by British composer Harry Gregson-Williams.This biographical tale about a woman's sole venture into a world of organized crime which is based on real events and set in Dublin, Ireland during the mid-1990s, is impelled and reinforced by it's cogent narrative structure, substantial character development, various characters, the reverent acting performance by Australian actress Cate Blanchett and the fine supporting acting performance by Irish actor Ciarán Hinds. A commendable, gripping and elegiac drama from the early 2000s which gained, among other awards, the Solidarity Award Joel Schumacher at the 51st San Sebastián International Film Festival in 2003.

It's a funny sort of film that's designed to document the life of a significant individual - yet gives you the impression that she was more important than it has portrayed her. This is how I left this artful yet somewhat lightweight movie describing the later life and work of Veronica Guerin, a reporter investigating the drug trade on the periphery of the troubles shortly before the Good Friday agreement was reached.A voice-over at the coda of the film has to makeweight where the film itself has left out ballast. The performances are solid - more so in the case of Cate Blanchett herself whose Irish accent is impeccable, and whose buzzing, boyish energy seems utterly fluent and credible. Yet the baddies seem simply neurotic and the good guys drawn into Guerin's vortex of investigative graft maintain their distance. There's no tipping point, save two moments of drama - these are simply stock in trade.It's a useful document and a competent film but it just doesn't have the gravitational pull that the woman clearly did. 5/10

A journalist is driven to expose gangland bosses literally making a killing from the drug trade in Dublin. Her zeal perhaps blinds her to the dangers her endeavors are bringing to her door.It is surprising and sobering to realise that this project is a Jerry Bruckheimer/ Joel Schumacher collaboration. Not the most subtle practitioners going on past form, so bravo to them for picking this very human, and very tragic tale to tell.And at this point a footnote on authenticity. People talk about the liberties taken with 'the facts' in this film, and the embroidering and outright fabrications on Guerin's life. Quite simply, anyone who watches a film and feels they can learn about history is an idiot. I don't read history books for laughs or an adrenalin-pumping third act, and I don't come to films hoping to be more informed on social or historical issues. Film can be a jumping-off point for such concerns, and if anyone felt like going to the library to further investigate the death of a Dublin journalist after watching this film, all to the greater good. But films, by their very nature, are a fabrication. Please don't discuss them in terms of accuracy or authenticity, it's irrelevant.Okay, rant over.Blanchett is as multi-faceted as ever, presenting Guerin as endearing and lovable, with John Gilligan (a genuinely scary Gerard McSorley) the polar opposite, vicious and repugnant. The trick is to keep us engaged when we know how this is going to end. The film does that by inviting us to ponder all the possible steeping-off points Guerin had along the way, but nobly (naively?) refused to take.Schumacher shows a subtlety and restrain his previous work never even hinted at. High class drama by filmmakers working at their peak.