Shallow Grave

1994 crime movie

Rating: 16/20

Plot: A trio of pals take in a new roommate. He dies, and they find a suitcase full of cash which, after some trepidation, they decide to keep. It messes their friendship up.

Almost a cautionary tale, this is a fun one to watch unravel. The three leads--a young and burbling Ewan McGregor, an ornery and nipply Kerry Fox, and one of the Doctors from Doctor Who (Christopher Eccleston, in case you're keeping score)--are vibrantly obnoxious, jerky pseudo-bohemians, and watching their friendship fall to pieces over a stack of cash and a dead naked guy is as entertaining as it is cynical. They're a treat, McGregor especially even though he doesn't expose himself in this one, odd since this movie does have a penis. That belongs to Keith Allen who is so great in a small role that you really wish you could have seen more of him. Of course, his most memorable scene is when he's motionless and doesn't get any lines because giving lines to a dead guy would be weird. Great shot there, reminding me of Saint Sebastian (I think) in some painting by Caravaggio or somebody like that. Except with more penis. Danny Boyle, a couple years before Trainspotting, tells the story in a lively way with more than its fair share of visual flair, shots of spiraling stairs that recall Hitchcock, a hyperactive camera zooming through the streets with some techno music behind it, a body and a shot of a bloody bathtub, a cool slow pan in a tool shop, an eerie shot of an attic illuminated by light let in from holes drilled in the floor, and a terrific shot featuring a leg. Oh, and color, lots of great color. And you just have to love a movie that has "Saw Feet Off" music, not even the coolest musical moment in this thing since we're also treated to a band called Strip the Willow which I believe might be a euphemism. This is dark for a drama, but it's really dark for a comedy. The line "But Juliet, you're a doctor. You kill people every day," gives away that there's humor here, but the inspectors' conversations and a scene where a character threatens another with a drill are also funny. And there's Pringles product placement, right after that aforementioned scene with the bloody bathtub. I'll tell you one thing--I wanted to squeeze my giant hand into a Pringles container after that one. This story feels typical, and the twisty ending, despite being pretty cool, didn't quite seem believable, but this was still pretty terrific.