Critic Rating
(read reviews)User Rating
Director
Danny Boyle
Cast
Kerry Fox,
Christopher Eccleston,
Ewan McGregor,
Ken Stott,
Keith Allen,
Colin McCredie
Genre
Crime,
Thriller
Shortly after three friends decide on a new flatmate, they return home to find him dead from a drug overdose — next to a suitcase full of cash. They decide to keep the money and bury the body but soon face the consequences in Danny Boyle’s directorial debut.
Kerry Fox, Christopher Eccleston, and Ewan McGregor (in his first leading role!) all give excellent performances, especially Eccleston, as his mild-mannered accountant descends into violent madness, but the film overall never seems to completely find its footing. Lots of good ideas, but half-baked and shoddily executed.
San Francisco Chronicle by Edward Guthmann
In his big-screen directing debut, British film maker Danny Boyle demonstrates wit, intelligence and economy of style.
Empire by Caroline Westbrook
This, the debut feature from acclaimed TV director Danny Boyle, is the best British thriller for years, a chilling and claustrophobic heart-stopper centring on a moral dilemma destined to fuel many a dinner party conversation.
The Guardian by Peter Bradshaw
Shallow Grave is persistently cynical and uningratiating, a tale of nasty, greedy, stupid people who don’t realise that the finders-keepers rule doesn’t apply to a suitcase full of cash whose criminal owners will not merely want it back but want to create the specific circumstances in which Juliet, David and Alex will be unable to testify against them in a court of law.
Variety by Derek Elley
Shallow Grave, a tar-black comedy that zings along on a wave of visual and scripting inventiveness.
TV Guide Magazine by Ethan Alter
Danny Boyle's effective psychological thriller.
Chicago Reader by Jonathan Rosenbaum
This is a fairly accomplished first feature -perky, visually inventive, and unusually nast
Wall Street Journal by Julie Salamon
This clever thriller has the juiced-up, hyperactive feel of a rock video. [07 Mar 1995]
Austin Chronicle
Boyle, MacDonald, and Hodge honed this wonderful coupling of music, visuals, and clever words, as well as a strange affection for toy babies, in their first film.
Austin Chronicle by Adrienne Martini
Boyle, MacDonald, and Hodge honed this wonderful coupling of music, visuals, and clever words, as well as a strange affection for toy babies, in their first film.
ReelViews by James Berardinelli
Taken as a whole, Shallow Grave is a reasonably enjoyable (for those captivated by this sort of thing) black comedy/noir thriller that justifies at least a portion of the praise being heaped upon it from overseas.
Boston Globe by Jay Carr
Black comedy and film noir are around one another smartly and wickedly in Danny Boyle's Shallow Grave, a tense, twisty Scottish-made thriller that's going to break out of Glasgow in a big way. [24 Feb 1995]
Entertainment Weekly by Scott Brown
Danny Boyle's glittering, deadpan, nihilistic little thriller.
San Francisco Examiner
Smart and unsentimental as it is, Shallow Grave is more than a little forbidding.
Washington Post by Hal Hinson
Boyle's characters, too, are young and fresh and promisingly rude - especially McGregor's Alex - but they become less and less interesting as the movie progresses.
Christian Science Monitor by David Sterritt
This pitch-black comedy is less lurid than its title, but director Danny Boyle ultimately fritters away his psychologically rich story in a horror-flick finale.
Chicago Sun-Times by Roger Ebert
All of the materials are in place for a film that might have pleased Orwell. But somehow they never come together.
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