Despite the fact that Mel Gibson is a troubled religious nut with numerous personal problems, Edge of Darkness comes along to remind us why we all love him anyway. Edge of Darkness is a talkier version of last year’s Taken. Here instead of having a father who is an ex spy with skills, the father is a current Boston Detective who is hell bent on finding out who killed his daughter. At first everyone assumes the killer was for revenge against Detective Craven (Mel Gibson) as the mystery unfolds he finds out his daughter got involved with an activist group and he didn’t really know her as well as he thought he did.
Director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale,) does a fine job of maintaining the pacing in this. As the layers of the mystery unfold, each new clue is punctuated by a quick spot of violence – the kind that seems to come out of nowhere, like a girl getting hit by a car – Final Destination style. It makes you jump and go “woh!” The trailers lead you to believe this is an old-fashioned action/revenge flick but there’s not really that much action here. It’s all tension building. William Monahan and Andrew Bovell screenplay isn’t really a murder mystery, we know who the players are within the first 30 minutes. The only question is, “why?” The explanation is pretty convoluted.
In the beginning there are lots of scenes where we see Craven’s fellow Boston Police Officer try and console him but he never gives them a chance. The movie doesn’t really bother to set up that relationship properly.
Craven is a loner, even amongst his fellow police officers. His only real connection to life is his daughter and when that’s taken from him, he goes off the deep end. Unlike the movie Taken where Liam Neeson is killing everyone he comes across in Paris, Craven is still methodical in his investigation – he’s only going to take out the people who needs to be taken out – this really doesn’t happen until the end of the movie and not as many people has you would think. The ending left me feeling a bit cheated.
I’m not sure what I expected from this movie but it is a good solid return to form for Mel. Just stay off the crazy pills and continue to give us strong work.
Final Grade B
EM Review by
Michelle Alexandria
Originally posted 2.30.2010