MOVIE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | YOUTUBE NEWS EDITORIALS | EVENTS | AUDIO | ESSAYS | ARCHIVES | CONTACT |
 
PHOTOS | COMING SOON| EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES ||
HOME

                                                             
Saturday, February 20, 2010

MOVIE REVIEW
Edge Of Darkness
Ring Of Fire, But Not Around The Collar


Mel Gibson as Thomas Craven in Martin Campbell's "Edge Of Darkness".  The film opened late last month across the U.S. and Canada.   Warner Brothers

By Omar P.L. Moore/PopcornReel.com
Saturday, February 20, 2010

With "Edge Of Darkness" Mel Gibson returns on camera after being off-camera directing "The Passion Of The Christ" and "Apocalypto".  During those intervening seven years, much has been written about the actor-director's travails, and in this new film, directed by "Casino Royale" filmmaker Martin Campbell, Mr. Gibson seeks refuge, though some of the iconography from those aforementioned films keep him company.

"Edge Of Darkness", which opened late last month in the U.S. and Canada, is based on the 1985 BBC television drama series of the same name and finds Boston police detective Thomas Craven (Mr. Gibson) grieving early on following the murder of his daughter.  Like the methodical lead men in Michael Mann's "Heat", Craven is nothing if not the mission he is on: to get to the bottom of the killing that has left him bereft. 

The new film is written by "Departed" scribe William Monahan and Andrew Bovell.  Mr. Campbell's film works best when its shadowy elements are employed: the person you think you see, the person you swore you knew and the person you never saw coming.  Such elements render a Deep Throat-like ode to "All The President's Men", for sure. 

Speaking of which, Ray Winstone plays a mysterious operative who does some of this and some of that.  In his few scenes he plays as comic relief with his Cockney dialect and a few choice lines to balance the ultra-gung-ho Craven's fierce appetite for justice.  Mr. Winstone's Jedburgh character is given little room to maneuver however, since a film with the title "Edge Of Darkness" suggests anything but comedy.  After all, Mr. Gibson spends much of the film talking to dead people, half-dead people or people who have it coming. 

Mr. Gibson does far from badly here as Craven, but the film could have raised the level of drama instead of drag its narrative heels.  Key elements of the story lack cohesion.  There's a lethargy and missing tension that cripples Mr. Campbell's mystery drama and brings it to a standstill.  Much of the stagnancy is occupied by the isolation of the film's main character, who looks as hollow as the air he breathes.

Danny Huston plays a corporate rake who barely withholds the sinister glint in his eye.  At one point he asks Mr. Gibson's character what loss feels like.  You wish Craven would say, "check your f-----g stock options" or something, but the film's seriousness doesn't allow for it. 

With: Jay O. Sanders, Bojana Novakovic, Shawn Roberts, Damian Young, Denis O'Hare, David Aaron Baker, Caterina Scorsone, Gbenga Akinnagbe.

"Edge Of Darkness" is rated R by the Motion Picture Association Of America for strong bloody violence and language.  The film's running time is one hour and 57 minutes.

COPYRIGHT 2010.  POPCORNREEL.COM.  ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
                                                                             



Read more movie reviews and stories from Omar here.

Read Omar's "Far-Flung Correspondent" reports for America's pre-eminent Film Critic Roger Ebert in the Chicago Sun-Times - here



SUBSCRIBE TO THE POPCORN REEL MOVIE REVIEWS RSS FEED

MOVIE REVIEWS | INTERVIEWS | YOUTUBE NEWS EDITORIALS | EVENTS | AUDIO | ESSAYS | ARCHIVES | CONTACT |
 
PHOTOS | COMING SOON| EXAMINER.COM FILM ARTICLES ||
HOME