SHADOW DANCER

UK, 2011, 95 minutes, Colour.
Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, Domnhall Gleeson, Aidan Gillen, Gillian Anderson.
Directed by James Marsh.

Andrea Riseborough has already played a young Margaret Thatcher for television, a worker in Made in Dagenham, the infatuated Rose in the remake of Brighton Rock and the Duchess of Windsor in W.E. Here she is the central character and holds the film together, a fine performance.

She plays Collette Mc Veigh? from a militant IRA family in Belfast. As a child, she has been selfishly but unwittingly responsible for a family tragedy, 1973. Twenty years later, with peace talks getting under way, she is a bomb carrier on the London Underground, part of an angry groups led by her brothers. However, the British government have been shadowing her – and make her an offer she can’t refuse, freedom to be with her son and be a ‘tout’, informer for the British.

Her minder is played in his often serious fashion by Clive Owen. The British head in Belfast is played by Gillian Anderson (doing seriously what she had to do for comedy in Johnny English Reborn).

Action is quite suspenseful at times in this narrow suburban area of Belfast, Collette’s ordinary life and the pressures on her to make a weekly rendezvous, her having to participate in an assassination attempt but escaping, coming under suspicion by a paranoid local boss who thinks she is a tout.

A quiet resolution of the proceedings seems to be emerging when the plot twists, sadly, and the ending is not what we are expecting at all. This is the Troubles in a more modest but deadly 1990s.

1. Ireland in the 20th century? The Troubles? Northern Ireland? Government, the British and the troops? Peace processes in the 1990s?

2. The London settings, the Underground, the contrast with Belfast, homes and pubs, streets? Funerals? The British headquarters? The sea? The musical score?

3. The title, the reference to the file? Tout activities? Government agents and their surveillance?

4. The stances on Northern Ireland, the IRA, the role of the government, the police? The administration?

5. The prologue, the Mc Veigh family, the father and mother, the boy, playing the piano, Collette and her selfishness, forcing her brother to go out, hearing the shots, his body being brought back, the grief of the family, Collette and her amazement, her guilt? 1973?

6. 1993. Collette, her age, appearance, the bag, going on the Underground, the exit, leaving the bag, the steps, the exit, her being caught?

7. Mac and his holding Collette, her resistance, his explanations of their surveillance, the need for information? Her brothers? The option of freedom, the option of going to jail, not seeing her son, the CCTV, the group watching her, her coming to a decision? The conditions?

8. Going home, seeing her son, her mother, brothers? Everything normal, going to the pub? Hearing of the plan for the assassination? Not going to meet Mac? His sending the police, her arrest, reading the riot act to her, her giving him the information about the assassination?

9. The head of security, the meetings, Mac and his role, his being excluded, his resentment after working for months on the Collette case? The reasons for his exclusion? The other tout, being discovered? Interdepartmental secrecy?

10. The raid, the plan, the risk to Collette, her being asked to accompany the killer? In the house, phoning Mac? The shooting and the target, the reasons, the family reasons? The death of the employer? The troops swooping, Collette escaping into the house and away?

11. Kevin, his paranoia, wanting to kill someone? His visits, suspicions of Collette, the interview with her?

12. Mac, the information about Collette, the killer in hospital, his death? Collette’s question? The funeral, the police and their upfront presence, the IRA and the masks and the shooting into the air? The dispersing?

13. Mac wanting to know the attitudes of Collette’s brothers concerning the peace process? The news clips with John Major and his announcements? Mac and his meeting with Collette at the sea, the mutual dependence, the emotional effect on him, the kiss?

14. The head of intelligence, her work at the office, her attitude towards Mac? His confronting her at home? Her wanting arrests, not interested in individuals? Mac following up his contacts, going through the files, the discovery of the tout, phoning Collette’s mother?

15. Collette’s mother, silent, the death of her child, her sons’ involvement, the IRA, wanting Collette to get out? Gerard and his harsh attitudes, and his being tortured by Kevin, under suspicion? The arrest, the shootings? Collette upset?

16. Mac going to the sea, the plan to get Collette and her son away, seeing the girl and the dog?

17. Going back to the car, the explosion? Collette and Connor in the car – having achieved freedom? Their future?

18. A sad film, full of ironies as regards the Troubles? The effect on families?