Veronica Guerin is yet further evidence that Joel Shumacher is one of the most hit and miss directors working today. As I was watching this accurate, but paint-by-numbers biopic, Veronica strikes up a conversation with a lad in the street, and wouldn't you know it's Colin Farrell, his 20 seconds of screentime was enough to make me remember how good of a film Phone Booth was and how much more compelling it was than the film I was presently watching.

This biopic about the last two years in the life of crusading Irish journalist Veronica Guerin tells us the story, but does very little to show us how frighteningly inspirational it was - at the end they trot out a list of all the important changes in legislation that she brought about - but I didn't know I was watching a documentary on Irish Street Reform. None of this, however, is the fault of Blanchett who as usual, soars in the title role. As good as she is here, everything we learn about her is through external events--not once are we shown what makes her tick, what drives her to put her life at such great risk.

The things Guerin does in her self-appointed role as the investigator of the connections between organized crime and the growing drug problem in Dublin, are ridiculously dangerous. Things on a par with going to hell and asking the Devil why he likes to be so evil, then walking away with your note pad and some catchy little insights. Everyone she confronts mentions that they're going to kill her and several try and eventually do. This, by the way, is not a spoiler, Shumacher and Bruckhiemer show you her brutal murder in the first scene of the movie and then over the course of her two reckless years making drug lords really mad, by showing up at their door and asking them how it feels to ruin the lives of so many young people. We work our way back to the beginning. The only surprise being that she managed to stay alive as long as she did.

This sort of plot structure works if you've got a few surprises up your sleeve (i.e. American Beauty) but it robs Veronica Guerin of any kind of suspense or even much interest in the story. There were a few scenes (after the first time she gets shot) where she makes her husband swear not to tell a soul how scared she is - but aside from this scene, we never catch a glimpse of what makes this mad crusader tick.

Although celebrated in Ireland, Guerin's name is less known on these shores, but the American filmmakers - director Joel Schumacher and producer Jerry Bruckheimer - take an uncharacteristic restrained approach toward the telling of her life story. But they do so in a way that robs her of her grit and courage which gives the whole thing more of an aloofness than it needed. even though it manages to sustain viewer interest throughout, it never grabbed you by the guts. It's hard to really put your finger on why Veronica Guerin feels so distant and uninspiring. Maybe, it's just as conventional wisdom has always said: Journalism is a dull and tedious business to put on the screen. I barely made it though All the President's Men.