Danny Boyle
Shallow Grave

LA RECENSIONE

Probably little known in Italy - and saddled with the insipid Italian title Piccoli omicidi tra amici - Shallow Grave, Danny Boyle’s first major feature, was a significant commercial success in the UK in 1995. In fact, it was the most commercially successful British film of the year.

A scrappy, high-energy effort, it features a trio of young actors: Ewan McGregor (Alex), Christopher Eccleston (David) and Kerry Fox (Juliet). Of the three, only McGregor was destined for international stardom, also thanks to Boyle’s explosive follow-up, Trainspotting. Yet Shallow Grave already displays several of the director’s trademarks: a smashing soundtrack, kinetic camerawork, hyper-stylised settings and edgy, distinctly unpleasant protagonists.

Alex, David and Juliet are three yuppies in Edinburgh sharing a large, designer apartment. They are interviewing candidates to rent the spare bedroom, and from the outset they are portrayed as childish, cynical and mean-spirited. Eventually they select Hugo, who - despite his apparently cool appearance - turns out to be the worst possible choice. Shortly after moving in, Hugo is found dead from an apparent overdose, alongside a suitcase full of cash.

The discovery shakes the fragile foundations of the trio’s friendship. Alex and Juliet are eager to keep the money and dispose of the body, while David objects - but two against one prevails, and he will pay the highest psychological price for their decision. The story escalates rapidly into paranoia and violence as Hugo’s associates and the police close in, and life in the beautiful apartment degenerates into a claustrophobic nightmare.

What makes this film less accomplished than Trainspotting is chiefly the unrelenting nastiness of its central characters, along with a few implausible narrative turns. While the junkies in Trainspotting make destructive choices, they reveal flashes of vulnerability and human frailty. The yuppies here, already established as selfish and contemptible, seem driven only by greed and the desire to outsmart one another; their fate therefore fails to provoke much emotional investment. Moreover, the accidental death that sets the plot in motion raises questions: Hugo dies of an overdose, and nothing appears to prevent them from simply calling the police and keeping the money, thus avoiding the increasingly convoluted chain of events that follows.

Famously, production ran so low on funds that the filmmakers had to sell off the set furniture to complete the shoot in just 30 days. Yet the film’s extraordinary success provided the momentum and financing for Boyle’s next project, the international phenomenon Trainspotting. Watching Shallow Grave - currently available on RaiPlay, also in the original language - can therefore be an interesting exercise in tracing the origins of that later triumph.