"Shallow Grave" is English director Danny Boyle's ("Trainspotting," "A Life Less Ordinary," "The Beach") first and one of his best films. While he improved with his following film, "Trainspotting," he gave us an intricate and entertaining story in his debut, "Shallow Grave."
In the beginning of the film, three friends, Juliet (Kerry Fox - "Welcome to Sarajevo"), David (Christopher Eccleston - "Jude," "Existenz"), and Alex (Ewan McGregor - "Trainspotting," "Star Wars: Episode 1 - Phantom Menace") who share a four bedroom apartment, are playfully interviewing candidates to occupy their fourth room. After humiliating and cycling through many potential roommates, they decide upon Hugo (Keith Allen - "Trainspotting," "Captives") because, as Juliet says, "He's interesting." Things get really interesting when the friends discover Hugo sprawled out dead on the bed in his locked room from an apparent suicide. To their pleasant surprise though, they also discover a suitcase full of money underneath his bed. Here begin the many similarities to the film "Simple Plan," (made four years later) as the friends try to keep the body, the money, and much more, all a secret. Many plot twists quickly develop and keep you guessing all the way to the end, but I won't go into them as they would spoil your surprise.
All the acting in the film is very good, and the characters the actors create are interesting and well rounded. Ewan McGregor, as Alex, in his first lead role, is excellent as he shows signs of his future success in Hollywood. Alex is the most excited in the group over the discovery of the money, the most anxious to keep the money, and generally speaking the strongest character in the group. Kerry Fox turns in a strong performance as Juliet, the only female character, who is not all that sure whether or not they should keep the money. In every group of three, there is usually one person who doesn't feel as strongly connected as the others do. In "Shallow Grave," this character is David, and Christopher Eccleston turns in a very interesting performance in this role. The only problem with the characters is that none of them is particularly appealing to the audience, and thus there really isn't any one character that we are inclined to care that much about in the end.
As I mentioned above, "Shallow Grave" shows many similarities to the excellent 1998 Mystery / Thriller, "Simple Plan." In both films, three friends discover a huge sum of cash with a dead body. Once both groups decide to keep the money, the plot thickens as the characters must deal with their growing greed and the consequences of their actions. While "Simple Plan" is definitely the superior film, and once of the best of the decade, "Shallow Grave" is also worth the rental.
I recommend this film to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and doesn't have to see state of the art special effects to enjoy a film.
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