Shadow Dancer

Shadow Dancer

Tight and believable, but pay attention

By

Originally published on metropolis.co.jp on March 2013

An IRA lass planting a London subway bomb is quietly taken into custody, and when threatened by MI5 agent Clive Owen with a prison-enforced period apart from her young son, agrees to be a mole inside her violent, activist family. This is a scary thing to be. The mood and atmosphere in this well-made if not exactly groundbreaking entry into the IRA thriller subgenre is suitably oppressive. The film offers another impressive performance by Andrea Riseborough (Wallis Simpson in W.E.), and the script, adapted by Tom Brady from his own novel, is tight and believable, but you’ll have to pay attention.