Things are very volatile at this time as peace talks are in the works, but the McVeigh boys and especially their dangerous IRA point man Kevin (David Wilmot) are not in a mood to acquiesce to the Brits. When an assassination attempt is thwarted, they begin to suspect there’s a traitor in their tight ranks. But as Mac soon finds out, his pawn is not the only one in the game and his boss, Kate (Gillian Anderson), may have an agenda all her own. As things get more dangerous, he worries for Collette’s life and she, herself, feels she is dead in the water. As the noose tightens on both Mac and Collette, it’s anyone’s guess who will live and who will die.
I expected Shadow Dancer to be a taut thriller, and while it has its moments, it just didn’t grab me. I felt for Collette being placed in this awful predicament and Mac was a good man stuck in a bad situation, but they were both to blame for the things they had done in their lives as well. The ending did surprise me a bit, so that was a good thing, but overall, I thought the film was just okay. Special features include behind the scenes on many aspects of the film, as well as cast and crew interviews of 5 minutes or less each, plus a 3 minute compilation piece on the film. The editing on the cast interviews was shameful because during the first few words of each interview, there was no audio. When you have an interview that last a minute and a half, you’d at least like to hear the whole thing. I will say that I use my PS3 as a Blu-ray player and perhaps this is a PS3-only issue.
Overall, Shadow Dancer was just average for me. If the time period interests you, give it a rent, but it just never really grabbed me.