Veronica Guerin 2003

Terry Lawson, Detroit Free Press: Slick but sincere. Read more

Connie Ogle, Miami Herald: The real Guerin deserves a more complete cinematic tribute. Read more

Richard Roeper, Ebert & Roeper: I thought the ending was ladled with an extra helping of sentiment that wasn't really necessary, but it doesn't detract from Blanchett's amazing performance, and the power of this story. Read more

Moira MacDonald, Seattle Times: A woman died that day in 1996, not a saint and not a symbol. Despite its excesses, Veronica Guerin comes tantalizingly close to introducing us to her. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Veronica Guerin succeeds as a memorial to a gutsy journalist who changed a country. Read more

A.O. Scott, New York Times: A flat-footed, overwrought crusader- against-evil melodrama. Read more

J. R. Jones, Chicago Reader: Well-meaning but simpleminded. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: An action flick passing as a eulogy. Read more

Kenneth Turan, Los Angeles Times: More schlocky than satisfying. Read more

Lisa Kennedy, Denver Post: Veronica Guerin is the kind of edifying movie that Hollywood loves and critics are often deeply suspicious of: a film that celebrates the heroic. If not for Cate Blanchett's compelling performance we'd have just cause. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Inspiring. Read more

Chris Vognar, Dallas Morning News: A by-the-book, inspirational piece of Hollywood storytelling that tells you where it's headed in the first few minutes and manages to stay engaging until the end. Read more

John Anderson, Newsday: A good story, told with the usual Jerry Bruckheimer-Joel Schumacher glibness/pseudo-social concern. Read more

Peter Rainer, New York Magazine/Vulture: While I was watching Veronica Guerin, starring Cate Blanchett, I kept imagining the movie it might have been before director Joel Schumacher and producer Jerry Bruckheimer got their hands on it. Read more

Stephen Whitty, Newark Star-Ledger: More researched than truly felt, the movie fails to dramatize a number of crucial elements. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: It's hard to get behind a protagonist who keeps blundering ahead. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: CateBlanchett has brought the ill-fated Veronica to vivid life. Read more

Roger Moore, Orlando Sentinel: Veronica Guerin paints an unsatisfyingly incomplete life. Read more

James Berardinelli, ReelViews: With this movie, Cate Blanchett adds another fine performance to her resume. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: Cate Blanchett plays Guerin in a way that fascinated me for reasons the movie probably did not intend. Read more

Charles Taylor, Salon.com: You don't need subtlety for a movie like this -- which is fortunate considering that Schumacher is the director -- but you need a kind of craft that Schumacher doesn't possess. Read more

Mick LaSalle, San Francisco Chronicle: A smart, brisk thriller. Read more

Jeff Strickler, Minneapolis Star Tribune: Veronica Guerin is an inspiring biopic. It just isn't much of a thriller. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Rick Groen, Globe and Mail: What you expect from a feature film, especially one made seven years after her death, is the further matter of why she did so. Alas, that tricky little 'W' gets barely a mention. Read more

Geoff Pevere, Toronto Star: As movie material, Veronica Guerin's life could have benefited from the gutsy probing the woman herself was renowned for. Read more

Trevor Johnston, Time Out: Blanchett gets the accent impeccably, and encompasses both the woman's determined heroism and her delight in the picture byline, but neither she nor the screenplay digs any deeper than secular hagiography. Read more

Claudia Puig, USA Today: Made gripping almost single-handedly by Blanchett's superlative performance. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: It's slickly packaged, looks good in widescreen and toplines Cate Blanchett, but producer Jerry Bruckheimer and helmer Joel Schumacher seem boxed in by the very recent story. Read more

Michael Atkinson, Village Voice: A pre-programmed mediocrity, a slave to its cliches. Read more