I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

This story has more twists and turns than a second-rate soap opera.

This is a coming of age storyline that you've seen in one form or another for decades. It takes a truly unique voice to make yet another one worth watching.

Great story, amazing characters, superb action, enthralling cinematography. Yes, this is something I am glad I spent money on.

Collette (Andrea Riseborough) grew up with the Troubles in Belfast. In 1993, she plants a bomb in the London tube and gets caught. MI5 operative Mac (Clive Owen) gets the single mom to turn. She reluctantly gives Mac some intel and MI5 stage an ambush. The IRA is suspicious and Collette could be in danger. Meanwhile, Mac's boss Kate Fletcher (Gillian Anderson) seems to have her own agenda. Also the burgeoning peace plan is dividing the republicans.This movie is very low key and slow paced. Also I haven't noticed Andrea Riseborough in her other works. She seems to be very plain and plays her character very close to the vest. The emotions come out only in a couple of scenes. It all gives this movie a sense of realism. However the slow pace does take its toll. The tension is on a slow boil for most of the movie. The suspense is limited because there is no mystery here. There is a big twist in the end but the story generally lays out everything. The only thing left is a character study. Riseborough seems to be a good actress, and it's a functional movie on that basis.

"Shadow Dancer" from 2012 stars Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen, and Gillian Anderson. I'm not sure what the situation with this movie was because it only made $400,000.The movie takes place in Belfast, and in the first scene, a young girl, Collette, is told by her father to buy him some cigarettes. She doesn't want to go, so instead, she sends her little brother Sean.The action then shifts to 1993, and we see the adult Collette (Riseborough) deliberately leaving her purse in the London tube; as she escapes from the tube, she is arrested. An MI-5 agent, Mac (Owen) offers her a deal -- no prison time if she will become an informant and at the end of her time working for him, a new identity. Because she has a young son, she agrees.Mac ultimately learns that his superior (Anderson) is using Collette as a red herring to protect her own mole inside the Irish organization. Mac tries to find out who the mole is and remove Collette from a dangerous situation.This movie is sparse on dialogue and, frankly, action, particularly at the beginning as we see Collette on what seems to be an endless train ride and finally dropping her purse. After that, things pick up. The cinematography is dreary, with Ireland looking like it's one step up from a trailer park in most scenes.Andrea Riseborough, who can be beautiful and glamorous, is photographed harshly here, and she's excellent as a young woman caught in the nightmare of having to betray her brothers and answer to their trigger-happy leader Kevin (David Wilmot) and to Mac. She is natural and realistic in underplaying the role of a young Irish girl under incredible tension. Owen is good as the protective Mac, tough and persuasive.The big problem is the lack of family connection, that is, Collette's relationship with her worried mother and her brothers, who are entrenched in a violent world. Shadow Dancer concentrates on the relationship between Mac and Collette, where showing more within the family would have brought us into the film more deeply.We're led to believe certain things in "Shadow Dancer," and it's not until the end of the movie that we realize what a good script it was, and how well it is directed by James Marsh.A sober movie showing the impact of violence and stress on one family.

This movie is based on the novel by well known journalist (in the U.K.) Tom Bradby, who also wrote the screenplay. It's a dark thriller that runs a mere 100 minutes, unusually short for the genre; but it still manages to work, without as much of the character and relationship development I would have enjoyed seeing expanded. Bradby has had all the firsthand experience and knowledge on the subject, covering the Northern Ireland goings-on in the 1990's. He skillfully wrote a screenplay that is apolitical, yet retains convincing elements necessary for the movie to be a genuine thriller. The cast was well chosen and the ensemble delivers the goods without reproach.The opening of the movie brings important context to what will follow next in the movie. It 1973 Belfast, during 'The Troubles', we see young Collette witness the tragedy of the times when her younger brother is killed, collateral damage, and how she is moved by the event. Maria Laird who plays young Collette is an actress I look forward to seeing again soon. Then we fast forward to 1993 when Collette, played by Andrea Riseborough, is now an IRA member; she is apprehended when she planted a bomb in the London Underground, but the IRA doesn't know that for sure. Enters Mac, MI 5 agent played by Clyve Owen, who turns Collette informant. Unbeknownst to Mac, Collette's MI 5 mission is to protect a mole they have in the IRA; Kate Fletcher, played by Gillian Anderson, is Mac's superior but she does not share the information about the existence of a mole, which is something he has to dig up himself, if he's to ensure the protection of Collette. The drama then unfolds. The thriller has just one real twist, but it is a startling one at the end.I have to warn audiences about the very poor audio levelling in the movie. You see, there are two very critical and short pieces of dialogue without which it will be virtually impossible to understand the movie's denouement. So if you see the movie on DVD/BlueRay or some other device that has pause and rewind features, you'll be fine; you can play back and jack up the volume for those two moments, and you'll know I'm sure when those are. I never get how sound editors can miss that sort of stuff, that which can kill the viewing enjoyment. I'm very glad I didn't see this movie at the cinema, but on my big screen at home instead.Given the running time of the movie, I was happy enough with the key actors' interpretations of their role, but can't help but think how much better I would have like it if some twenty more minutes could have been added. I hope those weren't just cut out for reasons I don't want to speculate about. Of course, you get that I recommend the movie despite that.

Marsh has directed this IRA drama as a series of small gestures and has found in Riseborough an actress knowing how to do more with less. "Shadow Dancer" assumes a familiarity with history and politics of Northern Ireland keeps emotions so tight that it risks seeming inconsequential. The director overplays the symbolism, with Collette wearing a red coat when working for MI5 and a blue coat when back home. On the other hand, he can direct a funeral procession, with the Catholic mourners seething against a wall of British soldiers, so that the cobblestones feel primed to explode. In this world, death is constantly , all the time. As for love the story's so flinty and close-fisted that, ironically, it doesn't linger in the memory. Clive Owen perfect as usual and more at ease playing an English guy.