‘Is this just because she has a pretty face?‘
A film about the troubles set in Belfast and starring Clive Owen, Andrea Riseborough and Gillian Anderson? Sounds great, right? Why has nobody ever heard of it then? Because, in reality, director James Marsh (The Theory of Everything) and writer Tom Bradby fail to stick the landing…
Backed into a corner, the sister (Riseborough) of an IRA chief is forced to turn informant for Mac, an unforgiving MI5 operator (Owen). Their budding attraction muddies the waters, as does Mac’s strained relationship with his boss Kate (Anderson).
The issue here is that Shadow Dancer is boring. The pacing is all wrong. The dialogue would be fine for a TV crime procedural but it just comes off as uninspired here. The performances are solid, particularly Riseborough who is excellent as always, but it isn’t enough to save Shadow Dancer from being a bit of a slog even at a relatively skinny 101 minutes.
This kind of film is often the most difficult to review. Indeed, I am certain that in a week’s time, it’ll have fallen out of my head completely. It’s not terrible. It’s not great. It just is. Cinema needs to be more than that. Shadow Dancer is distinctly, hopelessly average.