Ya gotta know when to fold 'em

Cate Blanchett is a great actor, and I generally like Schumacher's films, but this one left a lot to be desired.

The main problem I have with the material is how Guerin's character is treated like a hero, and this might have been true in real life, but if in reality she was anything like she's portrayed here, she was no hero or role model to anyone, male or female. She's shown to be mind-bogglingly arrogant, dangerously out of touch with any sort of reality, bull-headed beyond belief with no consideration at all for her young son and family, and ultimately deranged in her continued pursuit of her seemingly ego- and glory-driven goals - "they can't win," she says at one point about the drug dealers she's trying so naively to expose.

I couldn't feel sorry for what happens to her in the course of the film because she was so clearly setting herself up for it, and this made the movie progressively more and more maddening to watch - I saw it at home on cable just now and spent the last hour of it shaking my head at the increasing stupidity of her behavior. I realize this doesn't make a movie bad, especially if it's based on a true story and the filmmakers are simply trying to convey the events as they occurred, but "Veronica Guerin" is done in such an artless and heavy-handed way that it wound up feeling drained of all life or meaning.