Review of "Edge of Darkness"
The Detroit News
If "Edge of Darkness" seems a bit old-fashioned, that's because it is.
It features Mel Gibson, who hasn't starred in a film in nearly eight years, suddenly popping up looking like, well, Mel Gibson's father. And he's working his way through a story that was the basis of a 1985 British miniseries. The entire enterprise feels a bit dusty.
Consequently, the only edge here is in the title. This is indeed your father's thriller.
Given that, "Edge of Darkness" is what it is -- a showcase for the newly creaky Gibson to show he's still got the right stuff, despite all the wrong stuff he's displayed in public in the past decade. He can still throw a punch -- although chances are he'll hurt his hand in the process -- and he's still determined to get the bad guys.
Gibson plays Craven, a Boston police detective whose grown daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) comes home to visit, shows signs of illness and then is promptly gunned down on the front porch.
Everyone figures it was someone trying to settle a beef with Craven. Except, eventually, Craven who keeps stumbling across odd indicators -- Emma was carrying a gun, her friends are noticeably nervous about everything, her corporate employer (Danny Huston) seems to be a psychopath -- that something was wrong with Emma.
There's also the fact that she was puking blood when she came home, but that doesn't initially bother Craven much. Sherlock Holmes he's not.
But he is persistent, so eventually he puts together the pieces of a conspiracy involving Emma's employer building private sector nuclear bombs while the government (why?) covers for them.
As conspiracies go, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, which can happen when you condense a six-part TV series down to a one-part film.
The script by William Monahan and Andrew Bovell does, however, afford Gibson the opportunity to unravel increasingly more obvious secrets and beat up people; and veteran director Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale," as well as the original miniseries) moves things along at an efficient if predictable pace.
The wear on Gibson's previous macho pretty-boy looks is initially distracting, but he is playing to his current age and even has some fun with his wrinkles. The story is workmanlike; and although it lacks real flair, the film has many Gibson-like moments, as well as a few corny otherworld interludes.
In other words, it's a cop flick starring an aging Mel Gibson as an aging Mel Gibson character, nothing more and nothing less.
If you want aging tough-guy Mel, "Edge of Darkness" is your movie. If Gibson really wants to revive his reputation as an artist, though, he's going to have to reach further.
If "Edge of Darkness" seems a bit old-fashioned, that's because it is.
It features Mel Gibson, who hasn't starred in a film in nearly eight years, suddenly popping up looking like, well, Mel Gibson's father. And he's working his way through a story that was the basis of a 1985 British miniseries. The entire enterprise feels a bit dusty.
Consequently, the only edge here is in the title. This is indeed your father's thriller.
Given that, "Edge of Darkness" is what it is -- a showcase for the newly creaky Gibson to show he's still got the right stuff, despite all the wrong stuff he's displayed in public in the past decade. He can still throw a punch -- although chances are he'll hurt his hand in the process -- and he's still determined to get the bad guys.
Gibson plays Craven, a Boston police detective whose grown daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) comes home to visit, shows signs of illness and then is promptly gunned down on the front porch.
Everyone figures it was someone trying to settle a beef with Craven. Except, eventually, Craven who keeps stumbling across odd indicators -- Emma was carrying a gun, her friends are noticeably nervous about everything, her corporate employer (Danny Huston) seems to be a psychopath -- that something was wrong with Emma.
There's also the fact that she was puking blood when she came home, but that doesn't initially bother Craven much. Sherlock Holmes he's not.
But he is persistent, so eventually he puts together the pieces of a conspiracy involving Emma's employer building private sector nuclear bombs while the government (why?) covers for them.
As conspiracies go, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, which can happen when you condense a six-part TV series down to a one-part film.
The script by William Monahan and Andrew Bovell does, however, afford Gibson the opportunity to unravel increasingly more obvious secrets and beat up people; and veteran director Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale," as well as the original miniseries) moves things along at an efficient if predictable pace.
The wear on Gibson's previous macho pretty-boy looks is initially distracting, but he is playing to his current age and even has some fun with his wrinkles. The story is workmanlike; and although it lacks real flair, the film has many Gibson-like moments, as well as a few corny otherworld interludes.
In other words, it's a cop flick starring an aging Mel Gibson as an aging Mel Gibson character, nothing more and nothing less.
If you want aging tough-guy Mel, "Edge of Darkness" is your movie. If Gibson really wants to revive his reputation as an artist, though, he's going to have to reach further.
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