Academy Award winner James Marsh has made two breathtakingly outstanding films in the last five years, both being documentaries. If you haven’t yet seen either 2008’s Man On Wire or the fascinating Project Nim from 2011, seek them out. They’ll help prepare you for the director’s next effort, Shadow Dancer, a harrowing political thriller starring Clive Owen and Andrea Riseborough that recently dropped a trailer on Apple.
Though based on a Tom Bradby novel, the look of the trailer suggests that Marsh wisely will give his picture a docu-drama feel. Riseborough plays Collette McVeigh, a single mother living in Belfast in the 1990s whose brothers happen to be hardcore soldiers for the IRA. When Collette is arrested in connection to an IRA bombing in London, she’s detained by authorities and given a choice: go to jail for 25 years and lose everything (including her son), or head home to Belfast to spy on her family.
Shadow Dancer ran through the festival circuit in 2012, stopping at Sundance, Berlin, Edinburgh and Austin, Texas as it collected mostly off-the-charts favorable reviews for Riseborough. The young actress turned heads as Wallis Simpson in Madonna’s W.E., and she acts alongside Tom Cruise in Oblivion, but this could be the performance that turns her into a household name.
Distributed by Magnolia, Shadow Dancer will be available on iTunes starting on April 25, then make its way to select theaters on May 31. The trailer sells a smart, sophisticated thriller with riveting performances. Do you think you’ll give it a try?
