SHALLOW GRAVE
UK, 1994, 93 minutes, Colour.
Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, Ewan McGregor?, Ken Stott, Keith Allen.
Directed by Danny Boyle.
A brief Scottish black comedy with some very macabre and violent touches at the end which serves as a tongue-in-cheek fable about greed and selling one's soul. Three flatmates interview potential tenants, taunting many of those that they interview, but choosing one who soon turns up dead with a case full of money under his bed. They are pursued by gangsters. Friendship is sorely (more than sorely) tested. The friends fall out, the police investigate, the gangsters are killed and also buried in shallow graves, paranoia sets in with the three as they begin to betray each other with violent consequences.
Kerry Fox (Angel At My Table, Country Life) is the star. Two emerging young actors make their mark in this film and went on to significant careers. Christopher Eccleston portrays the boring accountant who is more than transformed by the experience, his getting the short straw to cut up the victim for burial, a Jekyll-and-Hyde? experience. The other character, a journalist, is played by the young Euan McGregor?. He was to have a very successful career very quickly, culminating in the Star Wars Trilogy as well as such films as Moulin Rouge. The film was written by John Hodge and directed by Danny Boyle. They were to have an even greater success with Trainspotting but then moved somewhat upmarket with A Life Less Ordinary and The Beach and were not so successful. Danny Boyle returned to small-budget form with 28 Days Later and a number of television films.
1. Entertainment value of the film? Black comedy? Psychological study? Moral fable about the desire for money as the root of all evil?
2. The impact for the British film industry in the 1990s, a move towards black and bleak offbeat comedy dramas? Small budget? The work of Danny Boyle and his team? The strong cast?
3. The Edinburgh and Glasgow locations, the interiors of the flat, the rooms, the vast space, the loft? The contrast with the workplaces of each of the characters? The exteriors, the dark, the cliffs, the pool, the forest and the shallow grave? The musical score?
4. The title and its tone, death, discovery?
5. The plausibility of the plot, the three characters and their sharing the flat? Their ability to live together? Their wanting a roommate? Their interview style? The new roommate, his death, the money? The reactions, the disposal of the body, the other criminals and David killing them? The police investigation and interrogations? Their moral collapse and violence?
6. Hugo, novelist, the interviews for the flat, his sharing the meal with them, his death? The audience seeing the flashbacks but the characters not knowing what had happened? The drugs, the thugs, the battering of Hugo, in the bath, leaving him dead? The irony of their return, the confrontation, their deaths? The police investigation?
7. The three characters, the practical jokes, the range of interviews and the humiliation of the candidates? The characters of the candidates, their behaviour, their expectations, their reaction to being humiliated? Cameron and his interview, being led to believe that he could stay - and the finale at the restaurant and his attacking Alex in the toilet?
8. The characters, Juliet and her medical background, David and the scenes of his working as an accountant, the indication that his was a boring profession, in the silence at the tables with the other workers? Alex and his flair for journalism? As a combination, sharing the flat, their behaviour during the interviews? The quick sketch to differentiate and delineate their characters?
9. The reaction to the money, Juliet phoning, Alex finding the money? The questions about handing it in to the police? The long delays? The final decision about cutting up Hugo? Their going to the supermarket and buying the tools? David and his declared inability to dismember the body? The three straws and his getting the short straw, his doing the dismembering? The repercussions and its role in transforming him into a violent killer? The burying of Hugo, taking him in the car, the shallow grave? The body parts in the suitcase and in the pool?
10. Juliet and Alex spending the money on the video camera, their watching it, David's stern reaction? His beginning to take over? His persuading Juliet to be with him rather than Alex? The antagonism towards Alex? The hiding of the money, his spending time in the loft? The irony of the criminals coming, his watching them from the loft, their coming up to the loft and his killing them and throwing them down? The repeat performance for the burial?
11. The changes in them all, the police and the interrogations, each of their interviews, tensions, information given? The inspector and his assistant, his genial attitude, asking speculative questions, giving the card?
12. The decisions about the money, the motivations? Juliet and her buying the ticket to Rio? Alex and his wanting to ring the police? David and his taking the money by himself? The confrontation with Juliet about the ticket, with Alex about the phone call? The physical fights, Alex and David, Juliet killing David, David stabbing and transfixing Alex? Juliet and her apology, putting the knife in further? Her going to the airport?
13. The police inspector, the photographs, the final image of Alex transfixed? Alex as the most imaginative (and the details of his nightmare while wondering about the money and the violence)?
14. The film as a macabre black comedy, the characters, their behaviour, their motivations, seemingly normal, temptation transforming them, Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde? The ironic comic touches? The violence? The moral fable about greed and its consequences?
