Movie Review: Shadow Dancer (+trailer)

There's no doubting the fear and anger that gripped Northern Ireland during The Troubles.

For nearly 30 years from the late 60s, republican and loyalist paramilitaries waged a deadly battle with British troops - and compromise was not a word any of the competing factions wanted to hear.

The IRA ruled its territory with an iron fist and was ruthless in its desire for a united Ireland.

Based on former TV correspondent Tom Bradby's book, Shadow Dancer takes us inside a Catholic family that knew all too well about the death and misery that came with the fighting.

The movie opens with the death of a young child in the 70s and the sorrow that followed.

Fast forward 20 years as we rejoin that same family and discover how death has transformed them into ruthless IRA operatives. Colette McVeigh (Andrea Riseborough) and her brothers, Gerry (Aidan Gillen) and Connor (Domhnall Gleeson), are prepared to kill and be killed for the cause.

Colette ventures to London to plant a bomb in the underground system but does not activate it when she thinks she is being followed.

Caught by British agents when she thought she'd escaped, she is presented with a hazardous dilemma - either she co-operates with her captors and betrays her brothers or she will be jailed for many years and lose custody of her precious son.

She returns to Northern Ireland to play the precarious game of cat-and-mouse required to fulfil her end of the bargain.

She feels death is just around the corner when suspicion turns on her.

But her minder discovers that there is more to the situation than he realises and there is a deep and threatening plant within this environment.

The minder must find out who that plant is before it is too late for everyone.

Shadow Dancer is a gripping offering.

Shadow Dancer

(M), 100 minutes

Rating: 3 / 5