Shallow Grave concerns the misguided actions of a group of university students upon discovering their new flatmate is (a) dead and (b) in possession of a suitcase filled with cash. It was the breakthrough film for Danny Boyle and Ewan McGregor, and it’s easy to see why on both counts.
Boyle’s filmmaking is flashy, energising a simple story with colourful filmmaking characterised by kineticism and stylistic flourishes; it’s unquestionably the work of a first-time director trying something different from scene-to-scene (occasionally to the film’s detriment).
McGregor, meanwhile, confidently inhabits his role; initially brashly charming, he commits to his character’s shift to fearful timidity in the latter half of the film while maintaining that edge of mischief.
The narrative is relatively straightforward but clever and unpredictable: films concerning small-scale criminal conspiracies have always appealed to me, with heightened situations driving the characters to emotional extremes. The strongest stretch of the movie is the tense, nervous second act, as the students inevitably turn on one another, their trust in one another as riddled with holes as their apartment’s ceiling. A great deal of the appeal of this section is thanks to Christopher Eccleston’s restrained performance as his paranoia matures into something darker.
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