★★★☆☆

Having been an X-Files fan, I was happy to see Gillian Anderson working in movies. She’s from the Chicago area so there is that attachment as well. I can still remember that Fox News interview with her when the X-Files officially became a hit. She wouldn’t let the interviewer get away without thanking her instructors back home by name. Then she told their current students if she made it so could they. That’s class!

Clive Owen has been in so many things that I like by the time I stumbled onto Shadow Dancer that I simply couldn’t resist watching these two work together. I was not disappointed with their work.

The reason Shadow Dancer is a 3-star instead of 4-star review is the movie is a little too slow, gritty, and real all at the same time. The reality of covert operations isn’t the exploding action sequences of James Bond, but the mind numbing inactivity followed by what seems like even slower plodding. This movie brings that to the foreground. It keeps a bit of a pace, but you can feel the stress of nothing happening yet could go sideways at any moment.

One cannot review this movie in any detail without giving too big of a clue about the ending. All I will offer are two cliche’s too keep in mind while watching.

A devoted mother will do anything for her child.

Blood really is thicker than water and can survive betrayal.

For more movie rental ideas please see list one and list two.