Wendy Ide 

Baltimore review – Imogen Poots excels as British aristocrat turned IRA volunteer Rose Dugdale

Irish directors Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy’s biopic of the late rebel heiress is anchored by an expressive lead turn
  
  

Imogen Poots and Lewis Brophy with their right hands in a raised fist salute.
‘Unpeeling the layers': Imogen Poots as Rose Dugdale, with Lewis Brophy, in Baltimore. Photograph: Martin Maguire

Irish film-making team Joe Lawlor and Christine Molloy (Helen, Rose Plays Julie) bring their typically agile and unpredictable storytelling approach to the real-life tale of Rose Dugdale (Imogen Poots, excellent), who died last week. A British aristocrat and debutante, Dugdale was born into extreme wealth and privilege – a background she not only renounced but also weaponised when she became an active volunteer in the Irish republican movement in the 1970s. Essentially, it’s a pleasingly taut heist movie – Dugdale masterminded an ambitious art raid on a stately home, intending to barter the stolen paintings for the release of IRA prisoners. But the picture also doubles as a fascinating psychological study of fanaticism, with Poots’s expressive performance unpeeling the layers beneath Dugdale’s fervent belief in her cause.

Watch a trailer for Baltimore.
 

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