Brilliant Blanchett, mediocre movie

Stopping at nothing for a cause, the courageous Veronica Guerin not only serves as a role model for women, but she also influences all members of society to fight for a cause in which they believe.\nAcademy Award nominee Cate Blanchett is both poignant and fierce in the role of Veronica Guerin. With a perfect Irish accent, she captures the captivating and strong-willed person Guerin was. It is lucky she was chosen for the role, since director Joel Schumacher replaces a well-structured and thrilling storyline with a plethora of graphic murder scenes among Irish druglords.\nIn the mid-'90s, Dublin was the center of a rapidly growing drug war. Influential journalist Guerin witnessed the horrors of the war, thus sending her on a mission to bring down the powerful druglords. Her life was continually threatened to the point where most people would stop fighting. Quitting was not an option for this modern Joan of Arc; with her courage and intelligence, she exposed the leaders of the drug war. Sadly, this caused the heroine to be murdered. \nOne of the negative aspects of the film is that there is not enough background on the ineffective political situation in Ireland. Also, Guerin's motivation to crack the story is the result of only one visit to a crack house where she witnesses teens doing drugs. As sad as this is, an American audience needs to see more effects of the drug war on all of Ireland for them to be emotionally attached to Guerin and her cause. Schumacher did a good job of capturing the accomplishments of Guerin, butmisrepresented her when it comes to putting her family in danger. The audience detaches themselves from her when the drug lords threaten to kill her son and she does nothing to make sure that he is safe. \nSchumacher created a typical Hollywood-style ending. It consists of graphic scenes of her brutal murder followed by a long close-up of her dead body. Watching her death and seeing her family's reaction taps into the viewer's emotions, but the last impression the audience should have of such a heroine is of what she accomplished, not a horrifying image of her corpse.