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AS HOMICIDE DETECTIVE THOMAS CRAVEN INVESTIGATES THE DEATH OF HIS ACTIVIST DAUGHTER, HE UNCOVERS NOT ONLY HER SECRET LIFE, BUT A CORPORATE COVER-UP AND GOVERNMENT COLLUSION THAT ATTRACTS AN AGENT TASKED WITH CLEANING UP THE EVIDENCE.
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The good news is that Edge of Darkness (no relation to the fine 1943 war picture of that name) brings back Mel Gibson in front of the camera for the first time in nearly a decade. Although he's grown creased and leathery and his thatch has thinned, the movie star who was Mad Max still has the charisma and gravitas to center a dodgy suspense tale and propel it to the finish line. Gibson plays veteran Boston police detective Tom Craven, who welcomes home daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) for a rare visit, then sees her shot down at his front door. Because the gunman shouted "Craven!" and because a cop makes enemies, Tom assumes Emma took a bullet meant for him, which adds considerably to his grief and pain. But as he looks into the life of a daughter he loved yet scarcely knew, he discovers she'd been preparing to turn whistleblower on her employer, a corporation doing unsavory clandestine things for the government. Craven starts having oblique chats with a philosophical Brit named Jedburgh (Ray Winstone), who keeps turning up unexpectedly--in Craven's backyard at night, say--always giving the distinct impression that he could just as well kill a fellow instead of schmoozing. Their strange rapport, like Craven's tendency to mutter ironical asides as if in ongoing conversation with the departed Emma, is more intriguing than the conspiracy involving corporate skullduggery and a rogue assassination bureau. The bar for that sort of thing was set in post-Watergate days by Alan J. Pakula's The Parallax View, and we're nowhere near its cinematic elegance or pervasive paranoia. Edge of Darkness, based on a British miniseries from 1985, was directed by Martin Campbell, who also handled the six-hour original (and more recently the successful James Bond reboot Casino Royale). Campbell does decent-enough work--the occasional bursts of "shocking action" do shock even as we know they're coming--but rarely exceeds generic requirements. For killing comparison among contemporary suspense films, catch Roman Polanski's The Ghost Writer, in which every frame unsettlingly conveys a world where disquiet is the natural order of things. --Richard T. Jameson
Edge of Darkness Customer Review
Thomas Craven is a Boston cop. He has enemies. So when a gunman shows up at his door and kills his daughter, Craven automatically thinks they were gunning for him. But were they? Why was his daughter so sick? Why had she suddenly decided to come home? Why was she carrying a gun? And just what was her job at the Northmoor weapons manufacturing company?
Say what you want about the man; Mel Gibson, as an actor and director, is nearly unequaled. When he wants, he can sink his teeth into a role and never give up--and he wants to here. Gibson breathes life into Craven, making him a sympathetic, flawed hero. Ray Winstone, as a mysterious British special op, is also dynamite (as always). Danny Houston makes a great villain, even though he doesn't have much to work with.
And that is the main flaw of the film: it's forced at times, and this leads to a plot that just don't seem to make much sense (or make its audience care). I haven't seen the original miniseries; I'm guessing the problems here are condensing a longer, complicated plot into one 2-hour experience. It just doesn't always fit; this is far from William Monahan's best script, and it's certainly not Martin Campbell's best directing effort. Yet, the film IS a step or two above the usual thrillers of its type, mainly because of Gibson's bleak performance. It all leads up to an ending that is deplorable (I'm talking about the very last scene, not the ending in general), but the ride along the way is well-worth it. He's a cop with nothing to lose--so fasten your seat belt. (And the fact that the previous line doesn't come off as cheesy serves to show how worthwhile this film is.)
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