If you'll excuse the pun, Andrea Riseborough is a star on the rise. In her home ground of Great Britain she's famed for her role in 2010's "Brighton Rock," and in the U.S. she turned heads last year with her performance in Madonna's "W.E." In her face you see a wealth of what many psychiatrists have described as the most valued human state of the modern era: vulnerability.
Director James Marsh deploys Riseborough's asset of nuanced expression to full advantage in "Shadow Dancer": In this, you'll get to see Riseborough in about 50 shades of gray. The tiny snag here is that it's all gray.
In this film set in 1990s Belfast, toward the end of the period rather understatedly known as The Troubles, Riseborough plays Colette McVeigh, member of an IRA terrorist cell consisting mainly of her brothers and neighbors. When she botches a bomb plot in London, Colette draws the attention of M15 officer Mac (Clive Owen) and he offers her a deal: Go to prison for 25 years or work for him by spying on her family and reporting back.