A very Irish murder

Veronica Guerin
Stars Cate Blanchett, Gerard McSorely, Ciaran Hinds and Brenda Fricker. Rated M15+
Reviewer: LT Simone Heyer

Cate Blanchett takes on the lead role in the eponymous Veronica Guerin.

About 350 journalists have been killed in the line of duty in the past 10 years.
These are the people who are bringing us reports and images from hotspots such as Iraq and Afghanistan.

Veronica Guerin, though, was killed not in a war in a foreign country, but in her own city, in her own car. Guerin (Blanchett) was a crime reporter for Dublin’s Sunday Independent.

Her investigations into Dublin’s drug underworld led to her being targeted for repeated attacks and death threats to scare her into silence.

Her bravery and yearning to expose the truth ensured she kept her stories coming. She was shot dead in 1996 by one of the gangs. Two members were later jailed but the alleged ringleader was acquitted in 2001.

Blanchett plays an excellent hardcore journalist, who takes beatings and verbal abuse from the drug gangs and the snobbery of other journalists as part of her job.

This is an eye-opening film that makes you realise the extent to which some people go to reach the truth. The soundtrack is very moving in the tradition of films set in Ireland – think "In The Name of the Father".

Rating: 5 Stars