Everyone of a certain age knew what they were doing when US President John F Kennedy was shot. Likewise ex-Beatle John Lennon.

In the Republic of Ireland, the same thing occurred on June 26 1996 when Veronica Guerin was gunned down.

Yet the 37-year-old happily married mother-of-one wasn't a politician of international repute or a songwriting partner in a successful beat combo.

She was just a journalist...but not the sort that covers flower shows or trails after Jordan as she ducks out of Chinawhite and onto Stringfellows.

To her journalism was less a profession and more a vocation - she saw the drug menace on Dublin's housing estates and wanted to make a difference.

Writing for the Sunday Independent, she delved into Dublin's murky gangland and - with a combination of courage and intuition - lived up to her motto "I don't want to do it - I have to do it. "

The result was six fatal bullets in her body fire from motorcycle assassins as she waited for traffic lights on the outskirts of the city.

Schumacher, the director behind Black Hawk Down and Phone Booth, has applied his innate feel for action but tempered it for the telling of a true story.

The movie's strength lies in its no-nonsense approach to the life of Guerin, who some may regard as foolhardy but few would deny was courageous.

Blanchett, employing a faultless Dublin accent, impresses as the truth-seeking heroine, combining a devil-may-care attitude with a rigorous cultivation of the facts to back up her story.

McSorley seems to gain sole employment playing Irish heavies but here displays a tinderbox malevolence that chills in every scene he's in.

It's solid, no-frills, old fashioned storytelling...and it works perfectly for a story that does deserve to be seen and heard.

Tim Evans