When the Sky Falls

Based on the life and shocking murder of real Irish crime reporter, Veronica Guerin, Joan Allen gives a solid performance as gutsy Sunday Globe hack Sinead Hamilton.

John Mackenzie's film remains largely faithful to its real life inspiration's story and does not hold back on the brutality of the Dublin underworld. Nothing is spared from the slaying of Pete Postlethwaite's Martin Cahill style character Shaughnessy to the chilling death of a young heroin addict in a Dublin nightclub. Funded by Rupert Murdoch's Sky Movies channel in the UK, the movie sometimes struggles to overcome its tight budget and the made for television feel. However in 'The Long Good Friday' director's capable hands, it often succeeds particularly with a spectacular car chase through the centre of Dublin.

Where the film really scores is in its supporting performances - most notably, Jimmy Smallhorne as Hamilton's underworld confidante, Ruairi Conroy as a heroin addict, Liam Cunningham and Postlethwaite as old school crooks and particularly, Gerard Flynn as Hamilton's nemesis Hackett and Gavin Kielty as the skinhead, Tattoo. Mackenzie also somehow manages to wring out decent performances from Patrick Bergin as the frustrated cop, Mackey and Jason Barry as his partner.

If there are drawbacks it is the flatness of the relationship between Hamilton and her husband (Kevin McNally) - oddly reminiscent of the relationship between Lacey and her husband in Cagney and Lacey. The newspaper scenes are also a bit hackneyed - bearing little resemblance to real life newsrooms.

A superior film to Dublin crime pics, Ordinary Decent Criminal and The Vicious Circle, it still falls short of the visual, narrative and performing heights of John Boorman's The General. Nevertheless, When the Sky Falls is still good entertainment and one of the more honest biopics you are likely to see in cinemas this year. It will be interesting to see how this film travels beyond Ireland where Guerin's death caused so much outrage.

This is the sort of movie that would be dismissed as being implausible if it was pure fiction, but this tale of modern heroism is only slightly fictionalised. Joan Allen plays a thinly disguised version of Veronica Guerin (pron: GEER-in), an Irish journalist killed by the drug barons she fearlessly challenged.

In some ways the film's greatest asset is it's honesty: it's as uninhibited about tackling the issues involved as Guerin herself was: it doesn't pull any punches in criticising the irish government and police force's timid efforts to deal with the heroin epidemic in Dublin. It doesn't flinch from the fact that Guerin used some wildly unorthodox methods to tackle the drug barons. Also, like John Boorman's far more stylish _The General_, it shows that the Irish police aren't above colluding with terrorists in the drugs war.

In other ways, the film presents often gratingly hackneyed images and some wildly implausible scenes. The Drug baron's hoods are clearly based on the bad guys in Donald Duck cartoons, drinking champagne in Jacuzzis, while the newspaper office is apparenly modelled on _His Girl Friday_. Also, kids are seen shooting up Smack in Dublin streets IN BROAD DAYLIGHT, and no character bats an eyelid. The problem of using sexy Hollywood actresses to repressent real people rears it's finely embrocated head, particularly when Joan Allen is sexually approaced by several hoodlums. The movie also makes the world of Irish journalism and law enforcement seem more misogynistic than they really are.

These are minor quibbles, though. This, for all its flaws and low budget is a truly inspiring film, a film that shows that heroism is still possible and a welcome antidote to the "ironic" designer nihilism of much contemporary US and British crime cinema.

The name Joan Allen, so often associated with high quality, is used to attract innocent video renters to this film. They will be disappointed. What is alleged to be the story of a brave Irish journalist is instead a two-part mystery: a) why did Joan Allen agree to do this film? and b) what were all those people with thick brogues saying? Not only was a good deal of the dialogue unintelligible, but the film seemed like it began in the middle of the story, which was disconcerting - among so much that was disconcerting. A very dissipated Patrick Bergin, a long way from Sleeping with the Enemy, plays a frustrated cop. There's enough graphic violence, swearing with Irish brogues and skeevy looking characters to make three more films. No, thanks, one was MORE than enough.

Having watched this *after* seeing the more recent Veronica Guerin (2003), I can only say: don't bother with this one if you want the real story. While this is an interesting story, they must have been hampered by lawyers as it uses precisely no real names and leaves you wondering if it was all made up. Sadly (or thankfully, depending on how you look at it) it wasn't made up, but see Cate Blanchett playing Guerin for real and you'll get a much better idea of what happened.

'When The Sky Falls' is one of those violent, hard-hitting films that the UK does so well on TV. And indeed this feels like it should have been a 4-hour miniseries, not a 2-hour film. The subject matter is fascinating, the acting excellent and the themes raised very potent.

Problem is, 'When The Sky Falls' can't seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a straight thriller, a celebration of one woman's triumph or an examination of the aftermath (or continuation) of the Troubles in Ireland. Given a longer duration it could deal with all the matters effectively, not leave the viewer gasping for breath as he tries to unravel all the various elements of the complex plot. The film is also cursed with the kind of weak, rather dull ending often associated with 'true-life' movies; and the sickening violence seems somehow out of place in so serious a project.

All this aside, 'When The Sky Falls' is a gripping, intriguing piece of drama; it's just not half the film it could have been.