Shallow Grave (1995)

Too much of everything

Simply A Masterpiece

Crappy film

The storyline feels a little thin and moth-eaten in parts but this sequel is plenty of fun.

First of all I have to say that I was satisfied with this movie. Ewan McGregor acts terrific. He looks very gentile and young in this movie and appears in leading role. "Shallow Grave" is a low budget film, like the other Euro-origin movies. The film has a way-out beginning. I also liked the manner of telling which made by the Christopher Ecclestone. His questioning attitude carve out the main theme of the movie. A great movie for suspense fanciers.

This is an enjoyable little movie with an interesting premise, some good plot twists, fine acting and a lot of humor and style. Boyle's directorial debut is very impressive: the camera-work is at times very stylish. The movie is able to build a lot of tension and to keep the viewer glued to the screen. Some specific sequences and ideas are just great. Having said all of these good things, I can't help but to think that the final part of the movie didn't fully convince me and in its excesses it becomes less and less plausible. The evolution's of Eccleston's character is particularly hard to believe. But this doesn't change the fact that this is a stylish movie that grabbed my attention from start to end, made me laugh several times and even surprised me a couple of other times. Overall, I would recommend it to almost anyone who likes thrillers and crime movies.

"Shallow Grave" is a thriller that challenges you based on how you feel about the characters. Since we are aware early on that the characters in this movie – nee, the heroes – are unlikable and snobbish, that kind of puts us at a distance. Our concern for their safety is thus pushed away. That pulls the rug out from under the whole film.The story is intriguing. Three twerpy snobs, David Stephens (Christopher Eccleston), an accountant, Juliet (Kerry Fox) and Alex (Ewan McGregor) share a roomy flat in Edinburgh and decide to rent out the spare room. During the (somewhat mean-spirited) application process, they have a blast poking fun at the potential applicants. Finally one suits their fancy, an older man named Keith who not only gets the room but catches Juliet"s eye.The next day they find Keith dead in his room. Searching the room, they find a suitcase filled with a mountain of cash. What to do with it? No one besides the three roommates knows that Keith has been there so they decide to cut up the body and split the cash among themselves.This easier said then done. First is deciding who will cut him up, where they will take the pieces, whether anyone suspects them and whether or not they trust one another. The situation snowballs out of control as one bad turn becomes another and the three become more and more paranoid.This is not exactly a new idea. The story was told better by the Coen Brothers in "Blood Simple" and in "Fargo" with more of a twist of human nature in Sam Raimi"s "A Simple Plan". But those films were done with a sense of the characters. They used a visual style and in the case of Raimi"s film they used likable people who were suddenly finding themselves doing things that they never thought imaginable.This movie was directed by Danny Boyle who somehow made likable characters out of heroine addicts with his breakthrough film 'Trainspotting". But 'Shallow Grave" is a movie that depends on how we feel about people who find themselves doing horrible things to feed their own greed. The closer they get to being caught, the more we have to care about them in order to feel for them. This unwholesome trio is not exactly a group that you would want to spend five minutes with much less care about their fate.** (of four)

At his best, Danny Boyle is one of our finest living filmmakers. And if this 1st feature isn't quite up to the level of the best of his work, it still shows one heck of a lot of talent.That said, while enjoyable and full of energy and solid performances, this didn't hold up as well on 2nd viewing as I'd hoped. This caper drama about 3 self obsessed, comically awful 20 somethings who fall into a bag of money and slowly turn on each other has a lot of dark cynical fun in it, but there are just too many logic holes and too many character leaps to be fully satisfying. A lot of the twists are clever (although some are predictable) but rather than characters evolving, they seem to lurch suddenly on their way down the rat hole to beyond forgivable. You accept the sudden transformations because they're there, but it did leave me wondering 'when did THAT suddenly happen to the character'. In turn, that underlines the film's somewhat cartoony nature, which makes sure it's never too disturbing to enjoy no matter how awfully everyone behaves, but that also robs it of the chance of being a deeper film than just a fun, smart genre exercise.With "Trainspotting" Boyle went on to find that perfect balance of surface fun, and deeper meanings, but this is a good first step.