In the mid '90s Ireland was wracked by out-of-control drug use and a wave of crime that came in its wake. Drug dealers swarmed neighborhoods, seeing little resistance from police. Addicts came in at younger and younger ages, sometimes addicted to methadone at the age of 14.
With this tragedy came a martyr, Veronica Guerin. As a muckraking, pull-no-punches reporter, she was largely responsible for exposing and changing the nation's perception of its drug problem. Guerin risked her security and family life to take on the dealers and kingpins behind the drug trade. Her investigation brought her fear and death threats, ending with her assassination in 1996.
That murder puts the Joel Schumacher-directed biographical movie \Veronica Guerin"" into motion. With Guerin's death, it became apparent she was a pivotal journalist at a time when most editors in Ireland hid behind their desks, fearful of libel and the IRA.
Cate Blanchett brings Veronica Guerin to the screen with a supreme performance. Throughout the movie, Blanchett manages to mediate between the role of a provocateur and a mother, balancing her roles in the newsroom and the home. Guerin is played with a stalwart dignity and she never flinches in her duty. Blanchett's gravity and grace work in near-perfect unison, allowing her to look as strong in a courtroom as in a brothel.
Aside from Blanchett's performance, ""Veronica Guerin"" benefits from Ciar??n Hind's portrayal of John Traynor, a fictionalized, composite character of several informants. Traynor manages to remain enigmatic and believably sinister. He is given a middling position between that of a helpful source and a pawn of John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley).
Gilligan provides a worthy nemesis to Guerin. Throughout the film, the two are pitted against each other through threatening phone calls, television announcements and hit men. When they meet at Gilligan's back door, the personalities of the two collide with such force and fierceness that neither can face the other without a keen feeling of rage. Gilligan assaults Guerin without restraint, sending her to the media with scars across her face and more resolve than ever before.
Though Hind and McSorley provide amazing seriousness and depth, they are still overshadowed by Blanchett's performance. It is simply impossible to get around the stubborn and oftentimes uncompromising persona of Guerin.
Her strength is nearly untouchable, yet her tenderness is entirely accessible. She jumps between strip clubs and archives with ease. Whether she uses a smirk to pull a tip out of a guy at a bar or stares down a lawyer, Blanchett's skill in portraying Guerin is astounding. Her character gains an almost tangible presence and her death makes the film a mournful and appropriate tribute.
While Blanchett does not carry the movie on her own, any other actress would surely fail to combine Guerin's vulnerability with her unflinching bravery.
