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"You think I want to do this, do you? I don't want to do this. I have to."

Occasionally Joel Schumacher will make something substantial and surprising -- there seems to be consensus on Falling Down and Tigerland, though I am personally fond of 8MM -- but for the vast majority of his career, he has seemed incapable of working on anything but the most literal level. Veronica Guerin, maybe the smallest movie Jerry Bruckheimer has ever produced, takes the easiest and most obvious routes imaginable, impersonal and cold for most of the way, then finishing up with a sudden dose of broad sentimentality. Thank God for Cate Blanchett, and for Veronica herself, who was no doubt more interesting and less stupid than this movie makes her.

This is a true story and, by all accounts, quite faithfully told. But because we are never granted admission into the workings of Veronica's mind, many of her actions just seem idiotic. Guerin (Blanchett) was a popular columnist for an Irish weekly called "The Sunday Independent." A story about the increasingly young heroin addicts roaming the streets threw her into a criminal underworld of drug dealers and monsters. Her informant (Ciaran Hinds) was helpful for a while, but was then instructed by the boss, a surly fellow named John Gilligan (Gerard McSorley), to lead her down the wrong path or pay.

Threats of violence come pouring in from all directions, but despite the pleadings of her mother, husband and editor, the quixotically persistent Guerin refuses to give an inch. She gets shot in the thigh, then beaten up viciously, with everything culminating in a shocking act of violence hinted at in the well-shot opening scene. Strangely enough, the film doesn't show her taking any measures to protect any members of her family from the ensuing carnage. Does she just not care, and are we supposed to root for her anyway?

That's the kind of thing Schumacher just isn't thinking about. Other things he's not thinking about: is it really wise/plausible for Guerin to simply march onto the property of the head gangster honcho she suspects is behind the drug dealing, knock on his door, introduce herself, and expect not to be injured? Has she gone mad? Furthermore, is her dedication to the project, her determination not to be silent really that admirable considering she has a husband and a young child? With an impossibly maudlin coda that paints the woman as a national hero, Schumacher tries to silence all voices to the contrary. Not very Guerin-like, methinks.

The film could have attempted to eliminate this intellectual opposition by giving us some insight into the title character. Instead, it remains inexplicably detached, going through the checklist of events with barely a hint that there are real human beings involved. Maybe it would somehow offend Schumacher's sensibilities ("I felt I disappointed a lot of older fans by being too conscious of the family aspect.... Now, I owe the hardcore fans the Batman movie they would love me to give them") to show some vulnerability.

But oh my, Cate. She does an Irish accent so flawless (to my ears, at least) that I began to question my previous knowledge that she hails from Australia. She gives off the air of impenetrable confidence most of the time, but her terror as she climbs in her car after receiving a vicious beating is so palpable that I began to shake. And when she smiles, well, stick a fork in me, 'cause I'm done.

The phrase "Schumacher execution" is starting to enter common usage because the man seems to make the worst possible version of any project he tackles. Veronica Guerin is more than tolerable, and Joel Schumacher is not a hopeless cause, but I think he needs to go into hibernation for a while.