Well, here’s a surprise. There I was, cycling around the Luck Archives - Floor 1 in case you were wondering since Floors 2 and 3 are currently being fumigated - and I chanced upon my first review ever to appear in print.
The publication in question was Redbrick, the official magazine of the University Of Birmingham. And the subject? None other than Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave!
So here it is, 28 years on from its original airing! Please be very kind.
Shallow Grave is 100% better than recent Hollywood offerings like The Pelican Brief and The Firm. Those films were spoilt by over-blown budgets and phoned-in star turns. But costing a little under a million and featuring a cast of virtual unknowns, Shallow Grave has no such problems. This isn’t to imply that the film is cheap or obscure. Quite the opposite, if screen tests in America are anything to go by, Danny Boule’s feature debut is set to become as big a box-office success overseas as it ought to become at home.
One of the fundamental reasons for the film’s success is the simplicity of the storyline: three friends find a new flatmate, he dies leaving a suitcase full of cash, they decided to bury him and keep the dough, at which point all hell breaks loose. Had this been a Hollywood thriller, said story might have become overwrought but it is to the credit of both Boyle and screenwriter John Hodge - also making his debut - that Shallow Grave remains wonderfully restrained.
There are impressive performances from Ewan McGregor and Kerry Fox, with the latter,
a New Zealander by birth, making a fine stab at an English accent. Christopher Eccleston is also impressive in a typcically unsympathetic role, and the film features a fine cameo from Keith Allen as Hugo, the doomed fourth flatmate.
Of course, Shallow Grave has its feathers - it’s far from cliché-free - but Boyle’s direction and Hodges’ script are so assured, one is more than willing to over-look any minor flaws.
This is an original, claustrophobic thriller, an angry, post-Thatcher film that somehow still retains a fierce pride in its British roots. This is something that dares to be daring and for that alone we should all be grateful.
Getouttatown! Know that Uni newspaper anywhere... when were you at Brum?