Shadow Dancer

27 Feb 2013

Director: James Marsh

UK

2012

101 min

This taut and pacey 90s-set thriller is carried along almost singlehandedly by the performance of Andrea Riseborough, who manages to come across as both vulnerable and utterly resolute. She plays IRA activist Colette, coerced by MI5 officer Mac (Clive Owen) into turning on her Belfast family and her beliefs.

The cat-and-mouse relationship between Owen and Riseborough is central to the suspense of the film as it builds toward an inevitable climax as suspicion mounts around Colette, and Mac finds himself trying to protect her in an increasingly desperate situation.