REELGUY'S REEL REVIEW:
"Edge of Darkness" a revenge thriller with a bleeding heart
Maine connection: The movie is filmed in Massachusetts, Maine's neighbor to the south, and stars a Boston-accented Mel Gibson.
Mel Gibson is back with a fury in this revenge thriller with heart. Director Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale") perfectly casts Gibson as an older man who's both a father and a policeman. His twenty-something daughter, Emma, comes home to visit her single father, who she's grown estranged from. Their initial contact is tender and tentative, creating a unique father-daughter dynamic. Before Emma can share a health secret with her father, Detective Craven, she is gunned down by a masked stranger. Why? Did Emma take a bullet meant for her father or does Emma's health secret go deeper? Detective Craven investigates the matter with a policeman's intelligence and a father's passion. This story feels familiar but with practically perfect direction and an emotional, angst-filled performance by Gibson, "Edge of Darkness" excels beyond the confines of a standard revenge thriller.
A meticulous Campbell helps Gibson focus his tendency for emotional outbursts by suppressing that grief most of the picture. The little details throughout the movie--a lock of the daughter's hair, a flashback moment, hearing his daughter's voice--are more effective in stoking the viewer's passion than a tear-soaked outcry. The dialogue is often quotable, "everything's illegal in Massachusetts," and when it is spare the characters' performances carry the scenes. The corporate and government villains are appropriately callous self-preservationalists. The inclusion of Ray Winstone ("Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull") as a hired Cleaner with a conscious further differentiates this picture from its ilk. The Cleaner successfully walks a fine line between likeable and threatening. But it's ultimately Gibson's believable and hard-edged performance as a wronged father with nothing left to lose that makes this movie a dark pleasure. "Edge of Darkness" is the first must-see picture of 2010.
Rated R for strong bloody violence and language.
