Film Review: When the Sky Falls (2000)

Journalists getting killed because they stepped on too many powerful toes is something that in popular Western imagination happens in Third World hellholes. It was hard to imagine such things happening in enlightened civilised countries of European Union, at least until most recently. One such occurrence in Ireland created quite a stir and served as inspiration for not one but two feature films dealing with the event. The first of those was When the Sky Falls, 2000 film directed by John Mackenzie.

The film represents thinly veiled biopic of Irish investigative journalist Veronica Guerin. In the film her character is named Sinead Hamilton and played by Joan Allen. The plot shows how she decides to cover the issue of drug problem on the streets of Dublin, made worse by activities of increasingly powerful drug smuggling gangs . She begins to build connections on the both sides of the law and gradually gains information that would reveal in her articles. When those articles begin to point fingers at crime bosses that have accumulated enormous wealth with authorities unwilling or unable to put stop to them, those very bosses don’t react very kindly. Hamilton and members of her family are subjected to constant death threats and Hamilton herself gets physically assaulted. She remains undeterred and continues with her work, hoping against hope that her public stature and rising international fame would give her at least some sort of protection and that criminals won’t actually carry out their threats to take her life.

Scottish director John Mackenzie became famous with his 1980 gangster film The Long Good Friday, but its success was never repeated. On one hand, Mackenzie’s approach from that film, in which gangster film content is mixed with commentary on broader socioeconomic and cultural trends, might have been right for true story behind When the Sky Falls. Mackenzie also, like in The Long Good Friday, had very good cast at his disposal, namely Joan Allen, American actress who handles Irish accent very well and portrays fictional version of real life martyr with proper combination of determination, vulnerability and feminine charm. Unfortunately, When the Sky Falls was made with relatively low budget, and, just like with Ordinary Decent Criminal, another film based on the true story about Irish underworld, tries to “spice up” dark and depressive story with action scenes and bring some sort of closure for the audience that demanded something like a happy ending. In this film this is brought with introducing character of Mackey, police detective and Hamilton’s acquaintance who, unlike the journalist, believes that the criminal filth on the Irish streets, instead of being exposed through media, should be dealt with more direct Dirty Harry-like methods, which he puts into practice. Although Patrick Bergin plays that character well, this character seems like a foreign body, something that strayed from 1970s and 1980s police action films into this, more serious, crime drama. When the Sky Falls was greeted with hostility by critics and became one of the more obscure films in filmographies of everyone involved. In 2003 the same story was covered by Joel Schumacher in Veronica Guerin, more fact-based and critically acclaimed biopic starring Cate Blanchett in title role.

RATING: 3/10 (+)

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