Edge of Darkness

Edge Of Darkness

It seems Hollywood is running so short of ideas that they've started plundering the BBC's archives. Clearly the frequent manglings of foreign movies weren't enough - now they feel the need to trample over British cultural cornerstones too.

The original 1985 BBC TV series is still considered a classic of the thriller genre on the small screen, but unfortunately this new version of Edge Of Darkness isn't anywhere near as engaging, as intelligent, or even as thrilling. Instead it serves up a mixed dish of obvious twists and frantic plotting that makes about as much sense as Mel Gibson's Boston accent.

You'd never guess that it was directed by Martin Campbell, the man who breathed new life into the James Bond franchise with Casino Royale.

Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a Boston homicide detective who's so grizzled and ill-tempered that he's clearly intending to own the stereotype for good. When his daughter comes to stay with him he lavishes her with attention, but there's clearly something wrong with her when she starts throwing up and bleeding from her nose.

Before he has a chance to find out what it is, however, she's gunned down outside his home - and Craven devotes his life to tracking down those responsible.

So far this could almost be a remake of Death Wish, but Edge Of Darkness takes a different turn when Craven begins to uncover corporate wrongdoings by CEO supervillain Jack Bennett (Danny Huston), and a potential threat to national security. Once CIA officer Darius Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) is on his tail, you know that things aren't going to end happily for anyone.

The bare bones of Edge Of Darkness look promising, but the execution is so haphazard that much of the life is drained from the source material before it ever makes it to our screens. Some of the twists are so obvious that you'd have to be Mel Gibson not to see them coming, while many of major scenes flit by so quickly that you could easily miss them while making a cup of tea - at one point Craven gets kidnapped, tortured, and escapes within a couple of minutes.

Gibson does his best with his first starring role since 2002, but some actors are so famous that they should never attempt accents: his Boston Irish drawl is a constant distraction, and largely irrelevant to a story that was originally set in Yorkshire. Ray Winstone struggles too, with a character who seems to have had all his major scenes cut, while Danny Huston is so clearly psychotic that they should have had him in a straitjacket years ago.

Edge Of Darkness still manages to muster up some occasional thrills, but with a cast, director, and a predecessor that are this strong it should have been so much more. It aims for dark, brooding, political territory, but all we end up with is a misguided jumble of 24 highlights. Jack Bauer, all is forgiven.

2/5

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Edge of Darkness

Why are these black SUV's following me? What the heck is wrong with the milk? Why is Diogenes smoking a cigar? Is that a Geiger counter in your purse or are you just happy to see me? I've got a dead daughter and so many questions...so many questions!

One Word Movie Review: GOOD

Edge of Darkness is a quiet movie, where you can hear footsteps, heavy breathing and doors opening, but more on that later. If you live day to day, oblivious of the greater conflicts around you, this movie is not for you. However, if you believe people deserve better than the unscrupulous pursuit of rewards without moral consequences, then this movie is opium to your addiction to truth, sacrifice and the striptease of conspiracy cover-ups.

Mel Gibson, after a long absence from the screen, returns to his familiar cop-as-vigilante character which made him a star, from the Mad Max movies to Lethal Weapon. After his daughter is gunned down on his front porch, he lights the fuse on his slow burn, grimacing ever closer to his violent retribution on the bad
guys. His unraveling of his daughter's past to the ultimate conclusion-through-reunion finale is a fine performance and the core of the movie. With a strong themes of amoral ends justifying the means and the power of ambiguity to conceal the truth, we follow Mel's escalating outrage to the hopeless, inevitable conclusion. Unlike the usual pounding music and explosions, we hang onto the crumbs of tangential conversations, about F Scott Fitzgerald and Diogenes and his lamp, trying to figure out the depths of corporate and political depravity in the name of jobs for Massachusetts.

Edge of Darkness resonates with a melancholy cynicism about daily life. While the plot pursues the facts, the characters are resigned to, as one character states, "We live a while, then we die sooner than we planned." In the end, we choose to ignore or engage in the higher issues of our world or shut ourselves in, adjust the blinds and clamp on the headphones.

The Story

Edge of Darkness is based on a British 1985 TV miniseries which is great place to come from in my book. Even better is the source writer, Troy Kennedy-Martin, who wrote some classic movies which still work today, films like Kelly's Heroes, The Italian Job and TV's Reilly: Ace of Spies. Sadly, he passed away last year, but his spirit and story skills live on in this movie.

The story opens on calm waters, under a full moon and beside an impressive estate/institution on the far bank. This image is disturbed by bubbles and the rise of three dead bodies floating to the surface. From there, we go to Mel as Detective Craven waiting for his daughter at the train station, who we see in home movies at the beach and then, as a young child throughout the movie as he remembers her. It is an effective reminder of his motivations, done well and with taste and a certain authentic charm as in the scene where dad teaches his daughter how to shave.

Although not expressed, there is a reason why his memories of his daughter are all at a young age. Regardless, once she is killed and his cop training kicks in, the investigation takes him to places he should have known but had shut away. His daughter's world of relationships and job responsibilities seem from another planet to him, but he applies his cop training to the pursuit and becomes convinced her daughter died because of her job with a defense contractor dealing with the management of nuclear bomb ingredients.

We also meet a freelance spook contractor named Jedburgh who, by his own admission, spends his time making sure no-one connects A to B and so on. He is a veteran spook, without boundaries and an unusual mandate to basically do whatever he deems necessary. He cautions the government weasel who calls him in with, "Are you absolutely sure you want me to look into this?" The bureaucratic rodent nods enthusiastically in agreement, as they stand in the underground garage meeting place. He will regret that hasty decision. I know what my answer would be, but then I'd never take a job as a weasel in the first place.

Once we meet the head of the defense corporation, and spot the many black SUV's (why do the bad guys always drive black SUV's?), the pace picks up and people get killed and poor Mel gets to go "lethal weapon" a few times, even to the point of getting captured and shackled in a basement. All familiar stuff. We add in more weasel lawyers and politicians and cops and, in the end, the only light left is in a hospital corridor, unsettling but inevitable considering where we've been and what's at stake.

However, like Watchmen, we are left with the hope of a free press and the magic glory of the truth winning the battle for freedom. One would like to think so.

The Genre

The hero-killer-vigilante genre has become THE vogue genre recently, perhaps due to the banking crisis, the mistrust of government regulation saving us from the worst evils of our capitalistic society and the general love of a conspiracy by audiences since the sixties. Mel Gibson is the boomer torch bearer for these stories, so his audience will be satisfied with Edge of Darkness, seeing the aging of their hero in sync with their own mortality.

Since the surprise box office success of Taken starring Liam Neeson, and the continuing stream of killer heroes to admire, this genre has become very popular. If you're a trained professional, you shouldn't have a daughter these days. If you do, don't let her go to Paris with her girlfriend, or get a job in the nuclear industry. If you're a bad guy, don't mess with the daughter of these guys or you're going to have a wet, slow death just before the end of the movie. I'm just saying...this is the trend. Don't go there.

Conspiracy movies feed all our helpless feelings about what we know in our gut vs. what we see on the news. Like the people in Edge of Darkness, you can live in ignorance or challenge authority or make a deal. In these vigilante genres, you challenge authority by ignoring the rule of law, the very thing you expect to protect you. If it fails, one sees, you have the right to toss the badge, grab the gun and shoot justice off its feet.

The Overall Quality

Martin Campbell resurrected the Bond franchise with Casino Royale, and thank you for that. In this movie, he takes away the soundtrack, the fabulous scenery, the babes and cars and all that great stuff and delivers a moody, introspective mystery, very personal and yet, just as evil as any Bond plot. His use of sound is a throwback to earlier movies, where actions were not signaled by theme music and emotions were not screamed at you above the roar of machines and bullets. The theater demanded quiet to hear the conversations. However, in my screening, an older man talked over the key conversation between Craven and Jedburgh, loud enough so you couldn't catch the dialogue. People yelled for him to shut up and he eventually did, and I was also upset and irritated at the intrusion, thinking why can't the movie be louder! Then a woman answered her phone behind me and her conversation drowned out another key line. Then I sat back and realized, damn this is what the movie is about: getting the public to shut up and just sit there! If we all did that, there would be no free speech, no search for truth, no opposition to the party line. Should we all just sit back and enjoy the entertainment of daily life and leave the intrigue and moral judgments to those in power? The sound in this movie forced the consideration of this issue right there in my theater seat. Add in the final theme of Orkasa Grigorieva's Say My Name, and you leave with a sorrow on your shoulders which has been well crafted by Mr. Campbell. Well done.

Mel Gibson's performance projects the inner conflict of his character. You sense his guilt over not acting sooner to engage in his daughter's life and now, with her gone, he has all the time in the world to make things right. Yet the world is moving fast around him and he is naive at best in his thinking. The wonderful Ray Winstone plays the world-weary, terminally-ill Jedbergh and acts as a contrast to Mel's personal world of suffering and confusion. He represents the opposite force and dances the delicate line between cruel sage and benevolent mandarin. Both are believable and vulnerable, and the character choices they make play real and true to their portrayals.

There is a moral tone to the movie, with the references to opposing truths and "hammering the nails" and "knowing you deserve to die" which is not the traditional language of film. You're supposed to show it, not say it. This dialogue comes across heavy-handed but perhaps needed to preserve the killer-hero genre. I don't know, but it sticks out to me as unnecessary and dishonest. It doesn't mar what is a good film, but let's hope this isn't a trend to dumb down the obvious. In the end, a good script, great acting and a quiet conversation are the high points of Edge of Darkness and well worth the trouble of the babbling audience member who almost died today at the hands of an unruly mob of pseudo-killer heroes.

Movie/Market Analysis

MarketBOB’s sentiment indicators, the GQS (Genre, Quality, Story) rate Edge of Darkness an emotional BEAR. This is a good movie but the portrayal of corporate America, politicians and the shadow justice system, while making good cinema, reinforces the general malaise of the country going down the spiral drain, just like Craven's daughter's blood as he washes his face over his bathroom sink after holding her lifeless body so tight. Is America draining away? Are we all straddling this Edge of Darkness? Well, next week we're going Paris "with love" and kicking terrorist ass with John Travolta, who I hope didn't bring his daughter along. I don't think there will be any ambiguity about the truth overseas: love means violence and explosions and lots of bad guys who deserve it, big time. Let the audience talk all they want.

Craig Forgrave (MarketBOB)

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Last updated: 2010-03-26 15:02:31 by user08

Edge of Darkness: No Insult to the Intellect

I like movies in which - for a change - the culprits are not your usual bearded, dark skinned, carpet-cutter wielding Hottentots from the outskirts of Godforsakistan, but the ones who are much more likely to be the real culprits, and I honor every director and actor who participates in such a screen statement, which requires a lot more courage than blaming it all on the Arabs, like the recent "From Paris With Love."

I also like movies which show that sometimes - perhaps often - you have to give your life in your fight for the truth, because, after all,
life may be a lot shorter than some of us think, and the only thing that will have made it worth living in the first place will have been the amount of truth lived during those years we will then look back on.

Hollywood producers always have this choice to make, about how much they're going to compromise with the truth for the sake of political correctness, popularity and gain, and I'd say kudos to Mel Gibson for not going the way of all flesh and the Travoltas of this world in this aspect.

Apart from the political message, the plot is also infinitely more intelligent than your average "Kill the Ayatollahs" rah-rahs.
There's always a lot more suspense involved in watching someone fight a real enemy, a ruthless and well protected enemy. Enemies that have the power of the authorities on their side, and it's so much closer to reality.

Needless to say, I'd highly recommend this movie way over the formerly mentioned type of Rambo-garbage, and would like to express my sincere gratitude to director Martin Campbell for creating a film that was not destined to insult the relatively few properly working intellects left on planet earth.

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Recommendations: The Matrix , Fratello sole, sorella luna , The Visual Bible: The Gospel of John

There IS no spoon!

Last updated: 2010-04-15 15:04:49 by McDozer

Review: Edge of Darkness

NOTE: With this review I start a new rating scale. From now on, films will either get a “kudos” or “goober” rating. “Kudos” is good, “goober” is not. So here goes…

Rating: Kudos

Mel Gibson gives a great performance in “Edge of Darkness.” He is often pissed off, usually out of his mind and always brutal. Watching him give this performance reminds us of him in “Payback.” He’s mean, and he should be.

If you’ve read anyone else’s review of this film, you will see them complaining about the tired plot. It is a tired plot, but don’t let that sway you. The trick to a tired premise is in how it’s written, directed and acted. The plot is about a Boston cop named Craven (Gibson), who witnesses his daughter’s murder one night. Now… but you know what now. Vengeance. When reading others’ reviews on the film, and all their rants about the plot, I’m reminded of the direct-to-video film starring Steven Seagal called “Out for a Kill.” It’s the same set-up, but executed terribly on all the requirements listed above. It’s so bad, it’s unwatchable.

So when I’m reminded of that film when I watch “Edge of Darkness,” I stop thinking about the cliché plot and start looking for other things about the film that make it better than “Out for a Kill” and all its clones.

One advantage this film has from all its predecessors is the depth of the story. A lot is going on in this film, enough to keep the viewer engaged. The action is also hard-boiled and swift, with quick editing from Stuart Baird (who also worked on “Casino Royale”). “Edge of Darkness” is a good-looking film, and the script from William Monahan (“The Departed,” “Body of Lies”) and Andrew Bovell keeps twisting away with new developments at every turn.

Director Martin Campbell (“Goldeneye,” “Casino Royale”) also does a decent job delivering the goods. He stays with Gibson’s character Craven through most of the film, leaving his side for only a few plot-important scenes. His style is good and he handles each scene well.

The villains in the film, namely Danny Huston’s corporate head, are a little disappointing at times as they are occasionally being evil for evil’s sake. When Huston asks Gibson how does it feel to lose a daughter, it seems a little too sinister for a film that is trying to take itself seriously. It’s a setback, but it doesn’t stop the film from entertaining. Danny Huston recently played Colonel Stryker recently in  “X-Men Origins: Wolverine.” I feel like these two roles are rather similar. Huston is a good actor and I hate to see him typecast.

These shortcomings aside, “Edge of Darkness” is still a well-made action flick. It’s not top of the line, but it gets the job done. And I think that’s good enough for a kudos.

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Edge of Darkness

Edge of Darkness
Starring:
Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Bojana Novakovic, Danny Huston
Director: Martin Campbell
Genre: Thriller, Drama
Rated: R

Homicide Detective Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) investigates the murder of his daughter Emma Craven (Bojana Novakovic) who is involved in a corporate cover up and the death of three Activists.

Thomas Craven watches his daughter get killed in front of him, initially thinking he was the target he soon learns he was wrong and his daughter was in a situation at work that caused her to be the original target all along. Craven investigates her death to find out what sinister plot his daughter accidentally got herself involved in, he vows get to the bottom of it at any cost after all he is the guy with “nothing to lose”.

Mid investigation Craven meets Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) who is the guy hired by Northmoor to clean up the mess. Although Jedburgh is a cold hearted killer he feels sympathy for Craven having lost his only daughter, later we find out there is some mystery illness he has that is causing him to not get in the way of Craven and minimally help him out.

With Grandiose aspirations of creating an elaborate and complex plot that revolves around an R&D company named Northmoor secretly creating military weapons. Edge of darkness really is a much simpler story involving a father who loses the only person in his life and a straightforward cover up involving only a handful of people.

Sadly the entire movie is convoluted, one of the biggest problems is that Northmoor is not a scary company there is not enough information provided to lead you to believe that they are menacing and we never learn how glorified intern Emma was even able to come across the info that has put her life in peril.

I had multiple issues with Edge of Darkness most notably the examples listed below.

With one of the stupidest plot points in recent memory, Emma has come in contact with radiation poisoning, even though everyone knows Emma is poisoned a hit is put on her where she is killed by a shotgun, most of her torso is blown away but Thomas Craven(who was standing next to her) is miraculously not even slightly injured. Later, Thomas drinks milk that was poisoned with radiation as well, rather than let him die the Northmoor flunkies feel the need to capture him. Apparently the cool thing to do is go through the trouble of giving someone radiation poisoning, not to kill them without linking them to you but really just to soften them up, and make them a lesser advisory so you can bring them to the basement of your company.

One of the most absurd scenes is where Craven, like an old west gunslinger shoots at a car that is driving right at him, after shooting the driver side windshield multiple times the driver decides not to swerve out of the way and instead plays a futile game of chicken with rogue cop craven(Has nobody learned that when Mel Gibson is a cop who goes Rogue, you don’t stand in his way?), not surprisingly the driver is finally shot which makes him swerve at the last minute just narrowly missing Craven and ending up driving into a lake. This realism is at the center of every scene.

Both Craven and the Shadowy Northmoor Bad guys in there black SUV have multiple opportunities to kill each other but rather than just end it, a lame game of Cat and Mouse is played for no other purpose than to extend the running time. The climax of the film involves a sick radiation poisoned craven entering the home of the head of Northmoor Jack Bennett (Danny Huston) so he can have a shootout with the henchman and put an end to this nonsense. After coming into contact with Craven Jack runs to his kitchen to get his anti radiation pills, a staple of all households (I keep mine between the vitamin C and the Aspirin) but at this point /</gidel datetime="2010-02-02T17:57:37+00:00"/>/giRiggs</del> Craven is in full rogue cop mode and we know it’s not going to help. Interestingly enough Craven doesn’t take any of the pills and when he gets sent to the hospital he isn’t given any of this mystery prescription either.

There is a small chance that edge of darkness could have been good but how that would be possible is beyond me.Grade-68

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Edge of Darkness (2010)

Directed By: Martin Campbell

Starring: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Hutson

What It’s All About:

Edge of Darkness follows the story of Thomas Craven (Gibson), a cop who’s daughter is killed in a drive by shooting which is assumed to be an attempt on his own life. After investigating his daughter’s personal life, Thomas quickly learns that not is all what it seems as he gets closer and closer to unravelling a much darker and sinister motive for his daughters death.

The Verdict

While it’s great to see Gibson back in front of the camera rather than behind it, Edge of Darkness fails to capture the imagination of the audience. Drab dialogue, sporadic action sequences and numerous plot twists that are highly predictable make this film one to miss. You sit there waiting for something to happen yet nothing ever really does, and it ends on a note that will leave a sour taste in your mouth. The movie going public deserve so much more.

1.5/5

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Recommendations:

Last updated: 2010-03-04 20:17:18 by hellerphant

Edge of Darkness

Mel Gibson is back! Thank the acting gods for a moment please. All right, I may love Mel Gibson a little much but the man has been in some fantastic movies - i.e. "Braveheart," "The Patriot," "We Were Soldiers," cough "What Women Want" cough. Many of us have been waiting since 2002's "Signs" hoping to see Mel get out of the directing chair and flex his acting chops together.

Gibson plays Boston police detective Thomas Craven. Craven is eagerly awaiting the arrival of his daughter, Emma Craven, who has been working for Northmoor, a privately owned company that does research for the US military. It is a typical family reunion in which we learn that Emma is pretty much Craven's entire life. There's no mention of a mother at all. I'm not sure if she died, he adopted Emma or she just kind of showed up on his doorstep as a kid, or whatever. It's Emma's first night back and you already know somethings wrong; she's getting nosebleeds and throwing up and all sorts of gross stuff. Craven rushes to take her to the hospital and as soon as they walk out the door, a masked gunman blasts Emma with a shotgun. She flies back like she was just clotheslined by a low flying 747. The police tell Craven that the gunman was aiming for him, but whose going to fall for that? Pssh not me, and neither is Mel Gibson, especially after watching Emma barf up something awful and take 200 grams of buckshot to the chest.

It may have taken you longer to read that paragraph then watch that scene in the film. Which is great because as much as I love Gibson (a lot), he's not very good at the small talk, and the first 8 minutes of the film is small talk. What Gibson capitalizes on is intense emotion. The man knows how to contort his face into something that just twists your soul as he watches his daughter die. In "Taken" I had to sit through almost 20 minutes of cheesy dialogue before Liam Neeson opened up a giant can of whoopass on European scumbags. "Edge of Darkness" throws you right into the action almost as soon as the opening credits scroll past.

"Edge of Darkness" consistently amazed me with its cinematography. Every action scene is beautifully done, and everything just feels real. Its rated R, but the gore is toned down enough to not make me want to cringe in disgust (I'm looking at you, "Zombieland") but is enough to still convince me that yes, this person was shot and that's probably how they would look if a bullet penetrated their eyeball and exited through their brainstem. My mouth was open enough during this movie in awe of the scenes that I'm pretty sure my moviegoing neighbors thought that might be a permanent condition of mine (it's not).

Well, now that I've written the equivalent of a short story on the movie's good sides, it's time to look at the bad things. The plot of "Edge of Darkness" is incredibly large and can get a little muddled. It is just one of those things that just doesn't feel right within the story. I'll throw out words and let's see if you can connect them: conspiracy, murder, radioactivity, nuclear bomb and, extreme leftist hippie groups. Yeah, I didn't think so.

Much of the plot is lost as well. Some bad company hires this British guy to help clean everything up and whenever he has a conversation with Mel Gibson, almost every word is lost to what I like to call "old man jabber." They just jabber back and forth slurring words - one of those occurrences in nature that catches your attention for a few moments before you realize whatever they're talking about is probably really boring. The sound system in the theatre was perfectly fine, but the way they interacted took away anything that might have explained the plot a little better.

"Edge of Darkness" is a pretty decent flick, entertaining at best and muddled at worst. Definitely go if you love Mel Gibson, and remember: everything is illegal in Massachusetts.

Grade: two and a half stars

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Last updated: 2010-03-02 09:29:05 by JoeandChrisO

Edge of Darkness: Not in my blog

The Movie Slut is indiscriminate. When it comes to flicks, she sees the wondrous, the so-so and the wickedly awful. But, even she has her standards. That's why she's passing on Mel Gibson's new movie, "Edge of Darkness." She will not see it. She will not review it. Here's why.

In 2004, the Movie Slut was disturbed by "The Passion of the Christ," in which Gibson espoused pre-Vatican II ideas, including Jewish culpability for the killing of Christ. She didn't like it, but she respected his right to express his beliefs. After all, he was a Fundamentalist Catholic and that's the party line.

That respect came to a dead end in 2006, when Gibson went on an anti-Semitic rant after being arrested for drunk driving.
Surely that's not behavior condoned by his religion or the first amendment.

Now, the more-Catholic-than-thou Gibson is getting a divorce amidst rumors of philandering. Divorce! Philandering! Finally, he's showing the world exactly who he is: A loathsome hypocritical bigot. The Movie Slut urges you to boycott this flick.

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See you at the movies, The Movie Slut

EDGE OF DARKNESS

RATING 5/10

BOTTOM LINE: Mel Gibson does his best to hold this bland and slow-paced effort together, but the film barely resonates either dramatically or emotionally, and is a far cry from the revenge thriller it tried to sell itself as.

THE GOOD: After the controversy surrounding Mel Gibson’s off screen antics and private life, it is a surprise to see him pop up and deliver another decent performance despite the setbacks. He plays Boston police detective Thomas Craven who watches helplessly as his daughter is gunned down at his home, and in his arms. At first believing that he was the target, he slowly learns that his daughter was the actual target, which prompts him to investigate a conspiracy surrounding a nuclear research facility and its connections to foreign nations and politicians at home. The set up for the film is a classic one, providing an opportunity to give its lead character a journey that we as an audience can go along with. Gibson does a great job of conveying a professional, yet distraught father trying to learn the truth, and he is surrounded by a solid cast, with Ray Winstone in particular working well as the mysterious, yet sympathetic character of Jedburgh whose background and connection to the story are a mystery. The film deviates from the traditional revenge flick by offering a deeper conspiracy theory story line, and as such, it becomes something of a detective hunt as Craven puts together all the clues. The film looks wonderful, with director Martin Campbell composing some of his wonderful trademark wide-angle images, along with some more stylised moments. “Edge of Darkness” starts from a good place, and Mel Gibson does a great job in carrying us along his character’s journey.

THE BAD: The film was promoted as a revenge thriller, and while that is technically true, the film is riddled with problems, least of which that the requisite action is absent. This film is slow paced and dialogue driven for most of its run time which contradicts the sense of urgency it tries to impart through its revenge thriller motifs. Who wants to watch the lead character talk and ponder about when you want to see him take out the bad guys as much as possible? The decision to go this way was a bad one, and leaves a film that is about as close to boring as possible without quite getting there. When the action does come, it’s usually for shock treatment; the scene where a girl connected to the conspiracy is killed literally moments after she offloads her information to Craven is an excellent example of a silly shock moment that throws you out of the film, particularly without the proper sense of build up and tension. The film also starts and ends in a negative place; Craven has nothing to hope for because his daughter is dead. If he could save her, we would have something to cheer for. The only resolution from this is to find out the truth about his daughter, but regardless, his life is still shattered. In the end, the combination of all these factors leaves you feeling seriously underwhelmed, with a film that has not taken you anywhere close to compelling.

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Todd Murphy <br />
http://www.allaboutmovies.net

Edge of Darkness

Mel Gibson is at his most Mel Gibson-y here.

He scowls. He growls. He suffers incomprehensible amounts of punishment. He kills and kills and kills.

All we're really missing is an anti-semitic remark or two and it would be the complete Mel Gibson experience.

Therefore, how much you enjoy the movie will reflect how much you enjoy Mel Gibson. Because on its own, "Edge of Darkness" kinda sucks.

It follows the story of Bawston Cawp Thomas Craven, a veteran detective playing host to his only daughter, twentysomething Emma, who gets blasted with a shotgun before you can say inciting incident.

Who killed her? Why? What perilous secrets went with her to a premature grave?

These are the questions that will be answered in ludicrous fashion.

In fact, I can't really talk about the movie without divulging the secret at the heart of the story. Everything leading up to said heart is the most shopworn tomfoolery, a pastiche of cop movie cliches that haven't been fresh for a really long time.

"What's the senatah's cah-nection ta Noath Moah?"

That's my rendition of a Boston accent. The evil corporation of the story is called Northmoor. The name gets thrown around so often in a Boston accent ("Noath Moa. Noath Moa!") that I was giggling when I was supposed to be thinking about the plot and therefore may have missed some key details.

What I didn't miss is this: "Edge" is extremely old-fashioned. This may owe to the fact that it is based on a 1985 British miniseries of the same name directed by this film's director, Martin Campbell, who also helmed the recent "Casino Royale."

The script is """updated""" -- I'm hoping three sets of quotes drive the point home -- by William Monaghan, best known for adapting Scorcese's "The Departed" from its Hong Kong original.

"Darkness" resolves itself the same way "The Departed" does, with a Friday the 13th-like depopulation of the story's characters.

And while we're on the resolution, here's the big secret. (Get ready. Here it comes!)

Mel Gibson's daughter was killed because...

(are you ready?)

...she discovered the company she was working for -- Noath Moa! -- was building crude nuclear devices out of parts originating in the jihadist Middle East. In other words, it was building nukes that would be untraceable back to the US, and selling them...

...to the United States Government!

Raising the question:

What on Earth was the US Government planning to do with dirty bombs that had jihadist signatures?

The movie never answers this question. Like a lot of conspiratorial wack jobs, its creators feel it is sufficient to assume the US government is not only capable of nuking its own people, but eager for the opportunity.

So if you're the sort of person who believes in lots of crazy theories, like, I don't know, the idea that the Jews were responsible for every war in the 20th century, then I'm sure you'll embrace this logic.

If not, the movie makes very little sense.

SCORE

How Accomplished: 32/100

How Much I Enjoyed: 27/100

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Edge of Darkness

God loves Mel Gibson. And how could He not? Mel’s entire career is about abasing himself; metaphorically (and, one infamous night in Malibu, literally) rending his shirt and crying: “What are you looking at, sugar tits?” Some people might walk around as if they were carrying a cross; Mel Gibson made The Passion of the Christ. Even when he was drunk and leering at Malibu police officers, there was a sense he was shaming himself for us. But God looks kindly on a guilty conscience.Lethal Weapon, Braveheart, What Women Want… all the superfluous torture Mel’s put himself through. He’s at it again in Edge of Darkness. (Note to Mel: God knows you’ve sinned.)

As Mel mutters a prayer over the murdered body of his daughter (so washed in blood, she looks like she’s been shot by a cannon), you know why Mel is in this movie. He is going to suffer. It won’t be enough for him to kill everyone even remotely involved with his daughter’s death, he’s going to be irradiated, shot, beaten, and electrocuted while doing it. Mel is a Boston police detective, according to the script. Look at Mel and you see only a martyr. Does the title of the movie even need explaining with Mel Gibson as the star? What follows next is the bloodiest episode of Columbo you can imagine. Picture Peter Falk with stigmata instead of a cigar.

Age makes Mel Gibson resemble a bible; one of those family bibles passed down through generations. He looks like he’s been at a funeral for twenty years. In Edge of Darkness, his daughter is the one good thing in his life. With her gone, Mel is free to shut the world out. He has an interesting conversation with a U.S. senator in the movie, telling him: “You had better decide whether you’re hangin’ on the cross or bangin’ in the nails.” It’s here, you realise Mel’s whole career has been about doing both. If he’d directed The Muppet’s Christmas Carol, you’d have witnessed The Passion of Kermit the Frog. He beats up a peacenik in this movie to show us his attitude towards forgiveness (Mel to peacenik: “Eat fist, Buddha boy!”)

In order to make Mel appear (at least in theory) “the good guy”, Danny Huston’s villain is given every indicator of villainy the film-maker’s can think of: he’s rich; he wears a dressing gown; his villain H.Q. looks like a cross between a golf course and Dracula’s castle. He even asks Mel, “What did it feel like?” (in a weirdly sexual manner) when Mel tells him how his daughter died. No wonder Mel says: “You know you deserve this” before shooting Huston in the neck (this, after Huston has already been forced to drink irradiated milk). If Danny was any more Mr. Nasty, he’d have a puppy pinned to his lapel.

As the éminence grise who helps Mel find the bad guys, Ray Winstone seems a strange choice for a top U.S. government fixer. For one thing, he’s from London. There’s scarcely an actor on Earth who could less plausibly have spent a lifetime doing C.I.A. dirty-work. But Winstone isn’t fazed by incongruities. He has a loaded conversation with Mel about public drinking, and he looks like the sort of pub landlord who would still have served Mel even after “sugar tits”-gate. You sense Winstone was cast as the start of a rapprochement between “Gibbo” and Britain. The Heineken-green isle in the Atlantic is far more accepting of drunken rants than the U.S.

A few years ago, when Mel Gibson was shooting Apocalypto in the Mexican jungle, a photo went around of Mel with the cast. It helps, I think, to explain the man. In the picture, he’s surrounded by extras in ancient Mayan costume; his beard looks like a volcanic eruption; everything behind him is shrouded in smoke. Mel looks ecstatic. He looks like Cortés after peeing in an Aztec pool. This is Mel in his element; in the jungle, where everything wants to eat him. Mel and God are closer here than in Malibu. In Malibu (Gomorrah of the Golden State), God is a 40-watt lightbulb. In the jungle, He’s a Klieg light. Faith is easier where darkness eats men.

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Last updated: 2010-02-16 22:16:37 by user01

Shell Review of Edge Of Darkness

Writers: Wliiam Monahan and Andrew Bovall based on TV miniseries by Troy Kennedy Martin
Director: Martin Campbell
Starring: Mel Gibson, Danny Huston, Ray Winstone, Bojana Nobakovic

Mel Gibson has not acted since "Signs" in 2002. He has directed two fine films since that time but it is really good to see him back as his old Mad Mel self. I just wish that his comeback movie had a little more grit and tension. This is a nice little thriller that is sort of a riff on those old "B Pictures" of the 40's. Those little revenge thrillers where the protagonist has to get revenge on those that killed a loved one. He also has to race against time because a certain obstacle is put in his way that might cause death. Gibson plays a father who is a Boston cop whose daughter is gunned down and he thinks the bullets were meant for him. The movie then turns into a little conspiracy thriller as he finds out his daughter was up to more than he thought. Mel Gibson is very good at playing the grieving, revengeful father and there are some sudden, good kills and and a slew of bad guys. I liked the acting in particular by Ray Winstone and Danny Huston, who should play a villain in almost every movie. The problem with me is the movie is kind of dull, slow and plodding in the beginning. The movie doesn't gain real tension until half way in. This is not supposed to be a big, sprawling Hitchcockian thriller but should have been like last year's "Taken" with Liam Neeson that was much better at working on our revenge palette. Mel Gibson is really good at this kind of role and I like his weather beaten face that has aged well but the movie was just okay for me. I must say it would be good if you were at home flipping channels and came across this and watched if you couldn't sleep. You would say that you were glad you caught it and that it was pretty good. You wouldn't remember it a few days later though so I think maybe this is a rental on a rainy day, not worth paying $11 for.

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Vincent Snavely

Edge of Darkness

     Going into the theater, I was optimistic about "Edge of Darkness."  It seemed to have a lot going for it; Mel Gibson in an angry, emotional role, Ray Winstone in a shadowy, mysterious role, a dark story, and director Martin Campbell, who also directed the BBC mini series that the movie is based on.  Happily, it all comes together well.  Well, it comes together well if you like dark and violent.  (I do!)
 
     "Edge of Darkness" is a dramatic tale of mystery and vengeance starring Mel Gibson as Thomas Craven, a Boston police detective who's daughter is shot and killed just as she is trying to reveal to him the real reason for her sudden visit.  Craven begins to investigate his daughter's murder and becomes increasingly motivated by revenge as he descends into a complex web of corporate conspiracy and government cover-ups.  He is aided (or is he?) by a shadowy NSA agent named Jedburgh, played Ray Winstone.  Both characters are searching for a kind of redemption and, in the end, both receive some measure of it.
 
     "Edge of Darkness" has a gripping, dramatic, story that keeps you engaged and resolves all the mysterious elements, but only in due course.  The drama and mystery are punctuated by scenes of sudden and intense violence, all of which are done very realistically and are not over stylized or completely unbelievable or unintelligible like a lot of action movies seem to be today.  The violence is also not inappropriately bloody or gory, but, again, is realistic and believable, though some scenes are appropriately bloody and intense.  Gibson is quite convincing, almost frighteningly so, as a bereaved father who will stop at nothing to avenge his daughter's death because he has nothing else left to lose, and Winstone, in some ways, outshines Gibson in his stone cold portrayal of a NSA fixer who may, or may not, be tired of cleaning up other people's messes.  The thick, Boston accents didn't distract form the film and seem, to me anyway, to be authentic, but, then again, I can't really tell (y'all.)
 
     I always enjoy realistic action dramas or thrillers.  "Michael Clayton" comes to mind.  "Edge of Darkness" is a bit more intense than "Michael Clayton," and a lot more violent, but all the same basic elements are there, good actors, good characters, good writing, good drama, and a realistic execution.  All of it makes for a well done drama that one can enjoy without having to suspend disbelief.

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Brian
Ciné Critique Américain

Edge of Darkness

Not quite as dark as the title implies, but a watchable little thriller.  I really thought from watching the trailer, that the conspiracy of exactly what was the daughter up to/part of would be more complex. It is a bit, but not as much. There are some nice action-y scenes though.
Mel Gibson, putting aside his private life--volatile persona, can still elevate the most meager movie to a higher level or two thanks to his acting skills. He's at his best, and really drawing the audience in, when he lets the pain of a character show, bet it slowly and just a tad heartbreaking, or with full on rage, and he does a show of both types here... a lot. How aged his face looks really adds gravitas to his father in bereavement.

What's the movie about? in short, Mel plays a cop whose daughter gets murder right outside his home. Everyone thinks that he was the intended target, but as he investigates, he comes upon evidence that his daughter was involved in something that cost her her life.  And because he's Mel Gibson, you know that means getting to the bottom of it all and then exact revenge on all parties involved.

Ray Winston's character really wasn't all that necessary to the plot, and this sort of thriller have been done better in the past, but if you have time to waste, you could do way worse than seeing Mel kick some ass. Grade: B-

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Last updated: 2010-02-10 16:40:03 by Nate13

Edge of Darkness - **1/2

Review:  Sometimes you walk away from a movie thinking that it really wasn't what you thought it was gonna be, in a bad way.  Sometimes that movie will make you search hard for redeeming qualities within, sometimes you find something, sometimes you don't.  This movie actually had a redeeming quality, but still left me angry on my way out.

The movie had a good premise, the idea of a father tortured by his daughters death and stopping at nothing to find her killer always presents an interesting dynamic to any story.  That is, of course, assuming it's done right.  This movie just didn't quite hit the mark.  The father-daughter dynamic was there but that seemed to be the sidenote as opposed to the actual story.  Instead the story involved the circumstances surrounding the daughters death, reaching to a national security level of importance.

This is all well and good I suppose but it just seemed to me that the movie could have made the audience care more.  It seemed to focus on the next twist to the plot as opposed the characters and how the plot actually effects them.  Movies with large corporation "bad guys" with far reaching conspiracies rarely work, but when they do (Michael Clayton) it is because those who pull the strings are still presented with some level of humanity.  This movie, presents nothing of the sort.  The puppet masters of the villain corporation just wear nice suits, talk cryptically ("I was never here") and meet in very nice places to vaguely discuss lofty issues.  That coupled with the unrealistic power of this corporation makes all the conspiracy theory stuff in the movie just seem hokey and takes away from the plot. 

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Now, I mentioned a redeeming quality, that quality is Mel Gibson's performance in this movie.  He captures the role of anguished father well.  This is one of better performance from Gibson in a while.  The role called for certain restraint and acting that took place behind the eyes (if you will) and relied on subtlety.  This is something that only an actor of Gibson's experience could accomplish.  However, his performance was not enough to save the movie from the plot that just got away from itself as it unraveled.

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Edge of Darkness

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Edge of Darkness

Edge of Darkness opened today, Friday January 29th. My local cineplex has a 10:30 AM show and at just $5 a pop it was quite a bargain for a brand new feature. Mel Gibson portrays Boston Homicide Detective Tommy Craven. This is his first on-screen performance as the lead actor since M.Night Shyamalan's Signs in 2002.

This latest version of Gibson is that he's now an older man. He was born in 1956. The fact is that if Braveheart was being cast today, Mel wouldn't have gotten to play the role of William Wallace.

But like Braveheart, as well as his other characters in Payback, Ransom, Patriot, and even the Mad Max series, Gibson will have a role wherein grievous harm was done to his family. This time, in EOD, within five minutes of the picture's beginning, his daughter Emma is shot at the entrance to his home, and dies in his arms. That's no spoiler as it was in the trailer.



The natural assumption, made by Craven, and his superiors on the police force, and the media is that there might be some connection between the shooting and Craven's job as a homicide cop. And that he was the target.

But that would be too easy wouldn't it? Pull the case files, look for a connection, check recently released from prison records...etc etc. This Boston police force had a rule, that if it was a member of the force that suffered the loss, he wouldn't be permitted to work on the case. But this was waived, as it was thought that he was the intended victim rather than his daughter.

So the grim, and resolute Gibson sets out to look into his possible connections and then to follow by looking into the names in Emma's address and contacts list in order to find out what happened and why. There's your plotline. Emma was played by Bojana Novakovic (below).



EOD was directed by Martin Campbell, who has two James Bond films, including the recent debut of Daniel Craig as Bond in Casino Royale, in his portfolio. So we know he knows his away around action scenes. His work here is very good. This film lacked the Bondian gadgets, gimmicks, and girls as well as the wisecracks. But you can't find fault with the action, the pacing, or the direction. This is a thriller, and while it may not quite be one of those taut, edge of the seat kinds of actioners, it does keep you involved.

By the way, Campbell also directed Edge of Darkness, a BBC mini-series in 1985. That one was set in England, this one in Boston and Massachusetts.But basically the stories are the same. And this isn't even the only EOD connection, as you'll find out later in this review.



There are a number of major plus factors in this film. First off, because he steals every scene he's in, is Ray Winstone (above) as Jedburgh who for lack of a better term is a 'fixer' who is available for hire by governements, corporations, and even individuals. He might even be working for two opposing clients in the same situation. He describes himself as someone who works behind the scenes in at least two instances.

• "You have a problem - you go to the police. If they can't help you, you then go to the FBI. If they can't help you go to the CIA. And if they can't help, you come to me."
• "You know how in a case where you're trying to make a connection between A and B and you can't. Because I'm usually the guy who stops you from connectong A to B."

Danny Huston is cast as the corporate biggie, comes from one of Hollywood's 'royal' families. His grandfather, Walter Huston, an Oscar winner for his portrayal of a grizzled gold prospector in The Treasure of the Sierra Madre, also appeared in a film called Edge of Darkness in 1943. This is little more than trivia as the pictures had nothing in common beside the title. Danny's father, John Huston, won two Oscars for Direction and Screenplay for The Treasure of the Sierra Madre. You may also remember Huston as Noah Cross in Chinatown.



Any way Danny Huston sounds uncannily like his father. In this EOD, you probably will spot his character, Jack Bennett, as bad guy as his office is so huge, and so opulent, that you know he's black-hearted. But there a whole host of other bad guys, and I'm not even counting the nameless goons, gunmen, and assorted henchmen. 

 
 
The higher up Craven's search takes him into the corridors of power, the more  the layers of evil keep on stacking up higher and higher. As does the body count.



Watch for Caterina Scorsone (above) as Melissa, a friend of Craven's daughter, and Shawn Roberts as Emma's boyfriend as they shine in their small roles.



I'll have to say that while Gibson looks smaller and older, he hasn't gotten any less tough, nor has his ability to be confrontational diminished at all. This is a very good film, and I do recommend it.

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Recommendations: Chak De! India

Last updated: 2010-01-29 17:15:45 by JustMeMike

Edge of Darkness

Mel Gibson is Tom Craven, a Boston detective. When his daughter comes to visit, she is killed in front of his house. At first, it is not clear which one was the target. The more Tom looks into it, the more he discovers about why she was killed and who did it.

I really enjoyed the storyline and the action, but my main problem was the audio quality. Many of the people spoke in a garbled manner that was difficult to understand.

/</gispan style="font-weight: bold;"/>/giContent Warning:</span> The main content warning is language. The F word is used a lot throughout the movie. As you'd expect, there is also plenty of violence.

The final scene is a death scene, but it is actually quite uplifting.

Overall, I'd give it a "see it"  :)

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