Shadow Dancer
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Dir: James Marsh
With: Andrea Riseborough, Clive Owen
BRITISH director James Marsh is a good friend of the Edinburgh International Film Festival. He brought the Oscar-winning documentary Man on Wire here, then Project Nim, and now he comes bearing this taut and thoughtful thriller set during the Troubles. Andrea Riseborough is outstanding as the Belfast woman who finds herself locked into one side of the struggle, while the ever watchable Clive Owen is the British agent on the other. Adapted from Tom Bradby's novel, this is a classic British thriller along the lines of Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy. Shot in the same sludgy tones and drenched in fag smoke, it has a note-perfect feel for the grisly political times in which it is set. While not without the odd flaw (at one point the story seems to jump the rails entirely), Marsh keeps the tension as tight as two coats of paint.
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