BEFORE I start reviewing I should inform MOUTHSHUT that all english movies rnt made in hollywood ... some r made outside also... This is a british film & not hollywood .
And so is TRAINSPOTTING
SHALLOW GRAVE is the movie that asks the question can three bored, young professionals who share a flat find happiness if they find a dead body and a suitcase full of money.This is the movie which made Danny Boyle hit big time who later went on to make one of the best movies of last century TRAINSPOTTING.
The plot revolves around Juliet (Kerry Fox) a doctor with a penchant for avoiding her admirers; Alex (Ewan McGregor), a cocky journalist; and David (Christopher Ecleston), a quiet accountant who is always in a hurry as he leaves with his briefcase. . They advertise for a fourth roommate.
Shallow Grave opens with a series of interviews for the fourth roommate. The trio cruelly home in on each applicant’s flaws while enjoying it all very sadistically(’’So tell me, Cameron, what on earth -- just tell me, because I want to know -- what on earth could make you think that we would want to share a flat like this with someone like you?’’), establishing our hate for them from the get-go. This is an clever move, daring us to hate the characters, then challenging us to sympathise as their lives begin to spin out of control.
Have u ever been asked questions like these when u went out looking for room mates?-
1)OK, I’m going to play you just a few seconds of this tape -- I’d like you to name the song, the lead singer and the three hit singles subsequently recorded by him with another band.(i loved this this & would definitely try myself if ever be in such a situation)
2)With which of the following figures do you most closely identify: Joan of Arc, Eva Braun or Marilyn Monroe?
3)Did you ever kill a man?
4)And when did anyone last say to you these exact words: You are the sunshine of my life’?
......& lotsa more.
Their search for a fourth flatmate brings Hugo a secretive fellow who claims to be a writer. However, Hugo’s time with the trio is destined to be short. One day, he moves in; the next, he’s dead, apparently of a drug overdose. Left behind in his room are his corpse, & a suitcase full of money. This presents a dilemma for the flatmates: call the cops or dump the body and keep the cash.Obviously they kep the money & dump the body in a -yeah u guessed it SHALLOW GRAVE after cutting the body into pieces(The point behind disposing of the body is somewhat lost on me, since they could have reported the death without reporting the money). But as Hugo’s ’’business associates’’ begin to come around and the police begin to get suspicious, the friendship proves considerably less than stable, as each one begins to become distrustful and to plot ways to get hold of the cash. Sounds familiar?? Not again?? well yeah u might have seen thousands of movies on the same subject but trust me nothing like this.The script wasnt a one-dimensional thiller oriented one , it had a lot of black humour underneath it-’’But Juliet, you’re a doctor. You kill people every day” then ’’I tell you, every letter this guy writes to you is the same: they all begin like pure love and descend into open pornography. I dream of your thighs, the soft touch of your white skin leading me in desire, while I, aroused and inflamed --’’
Now there r so many things which I noticed in the movie...Danny Boyle’s direction highlights a marvelous set, the massive flat, it was very tastefully done with red colour all around which I think influenced our very own Sunhil Sippy of SNIP fame (yeah I loved SNIP & u can go to hell if u didnt). Then the script which was filled with dark humour & the camera techniques of close ups & freeze frames & ofcourse voice over of Ewan McGregor (who else) which was a first for me in a murder thriller movie. We got to see this kind of stuff in the later works from Boyle & Hodge esp in their masterpiece TRAINSPOTTING.
Shallow Grave has all the elements of a great thriller. It’s not perfect, but it’s close.Taken as a whole, Shallow Grave is a reasonably enjoyable black comedy/noir thriller. It gets 3 & half stars from me.