Shallow Grave (1994)

Although I have not seen each and every movie Danny Boyle has directed I can say that I’m a fan of his work. I’ve seen movies like 127 Hours, Slumdog Millionaire, The Beach, A Life Less Ordinary and now this one. Shallow Grave could have easily been directed by someone like Hitchcock, because it’s a movie full of suspense and unexpected twists.

The movie is about three people who share an apartment, Juliet Miller (Kerry Fox), David Stephens (Christopher Eccleston) and Alex Law (Ewan McGregor, who will be this week’s pick for Friday’s “The Many Faces of…”). The three are looking for a new flatmate and the movie opens with them thoroughly questioning various people, which includes asking weird questions and making their potential flamates feel uncomfortable. They treat it like a joke until they find the right person. The new tenant moves in and locks himself in his room. When they don’t hear from him for several days they decide to break into his room where they make an unexpected discovery.

What starts out as a movie that’s all about fun, the discovery the three make has a big impact on the relationship between them. Characters change because of it and the psychological tension keeps rising as they don’t know if they still can trust each other. They do not know how far the others will go. A story like that needs great performances and the three main actors deliver on it. Eccleston’s character changes the most and genuinely shocked me, because of Eccleston’s performance. Ewan McGregor would later work with Boyle on several other movies, but in this one he’s likeable even though his character can be mean sometimes. Boyle already shows his very distinct style which he later perfected even further. If you have not seen Shallow Grave I can highly recommend it.