When the Sky Falls (2000)

Fact-based story about Irish crime-investigating reporter Sinead Hamilton, who invaded the Irish underworld and attempted to expose the illegitimate activities she found. Hampered by the ... See full summary »

Director:

John Mackenzie

Writers:

Guy Andrews (additional dialogue), Ronan Gallagher,

Stars:

Joan Allen, Patrick Bergin, Liam Cunningham

1 nomination.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Joan Allen	...	Sinead Hamilton
Patrick Bergin	...	Mackey
Liam Cunningham	...	John Cosgrave (The Runner)
Kevin McNally	...	Tom Hamilton
Jimmy Smallhorne	...	Mickey O'Fagan
Gerard Mannix Flynn	...	Dave Hackett (as Gerard Flynn)
Jason Barry	...	Dempsey
Pete Postlethwaite	...	Martin Shaughnessy
Des McAleer	...	Jimmy Keaveney
Owen Roe	...	John O'Connor
Gavin Kelty	...	Tattoo
Vincent Walsh	...	Shaw
Frank Grimes	...	Paul McCarling
Rúaidhrí Conroy	...	Jamie Thornton
Liam Carney	...	Dessie O'Reilly

Storyline

Fact-based story about Irish crime-investigating reporter Sinead Hamilton, who invaded the Irish underworld and attempted to expose the illegitimate activities she found. Hampered by the system, a police consort is ineffectual at aiding her despite trying to step outside of the normal bounds. Kevin McNally plays her husband, who hates her activities and the danger in which she places herself. Nonetheless, he grudgingly admires her persistence and encourages her investigation.

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Plot Keywords:

investigation | police | reporter | drug use | thrown from a cliff | 

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Taglines:

when the truth is hidden when the witness is silenced when the sky falls

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Genres:

Crime | Drama

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for brutal violence, strong language, drug content and some sexuality

Details

Country:

UK Ireland USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

26 June 2000 (UK)

Also Known As:

Veronica Guerin

Filming Locations:

Ballsbridge, Dublin, County Dublin, Ireland

Box Office

Opening Weekend:

£62,848 (UK) (16 June 2000)

Gross:

£271,641 (UK) (30 June 2000)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Bórd Scannán na hÉireann, Icon Entertainment International, Irish Screen

Technical Specs

Runtime:

107 min

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of Veronica Guerin (2003)

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Soundtracks

"Sleep with the Ancients - The Spirit of Eden"
Composed by Jimmy Smyth, Pearse Dunne and Jenny Newman

User Reviews

Slightly Flawed With Its Polemical Viewpoint

Journalists in films are cliches . They`re always shown as crusaders setting the world to right whatever the cost to themselves . This is a totally cliched portrayal as some of the worst vermin breathing are journalists , many of whom are driven by greed and ego and will print absolutely anything to sell newspapers , they`re not too bothered what they print just as long as it it ties in with a misguided editorial line and sells a few more copies , and that`s the problem I had with WHEN THE SKY FALLS , its heroine Sinead Hamilton is shown trying to take on Dublin`s drug dealers almost single handed .

I also had a problem with the black and white characterisation , everyone is either a nasty piece of work or a victim , the exception being MacKay played very well by Patrick Bergin who`s a sort of Dublin equvilent of Jack Regan or Frank Burnside who`s not below bending the rules to get results . He`s by far the most interesting character in a film that suffers from a rather shaky view of drugs . Smack addicts are shown to be hapless victims at the mercy of their dealers , but is this actually true ? I was under the impression that many addicts also sell drugs in real life in order to pay for their addiction , not as shown here selling paintings to tourists . And there`s no real attempt to address the wider issues of drugs and what to do about the problem in this film . As one reviewer has touched upon WHEN THE SKY FALLS tries to be a straightforward thriller and a socially aware film at the same time and by doing so it fails in trying two things at once.

WHEN THE SKY FALLS isn`t a bad film , in fact it was probably the best one I saw that night , but the other movies I saw were THE MUMMY RETURNS , SPECIES 2 and CODE RED so the competition wasn`t up to much . Hopefully next time someone makes a film dealing with drugs they might like to take the unpopular view that people volunteer to become addicts , a point TRAINSPOTTING made very well