Starring in such films as 1990’s “Hamlet,” 1996’s “Ransom” and 1999’s “Payback,” Mel Gibson has a long history of playing revenge-driven characters. This tradition continues in Martin Campbell’s (“Casino Royale”) film adaptation of his 1985 British miniseries, “Edge of Darkness.” Though it’s Campbell’s film, it’d be more appropriate to call it a Mel Gibson movie that harkens back to his copious action-thriller roles of the ’80s and ’90s.
Gibson plays Detective Thomas Craven of the Boston Police Department. His daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic, “Drag Me To Hell”) is a researcher for Northmoor International. While visiting her single father, Emma begins showing signs of food poisoning. The two leave for the hospital, but are stopped when a masked gunman shouts “Craven!” before fatally shooting Emma. Originally thought to be a botched attack on Thomas, he launches a personal investigation into his daughter’s murder. Thomas soon uncovers a web of government and corporate cover-ups that suggest there may have been more to his daughter’s work than she had told him.
Gibson’s history of playing characters similar to Craven makes him a perfect fit for the role. He does a good job of portraying how one might think a homicide detective would react to the death of a loved one. On the outside, he’s consumed with his mission and hides his emotions from others, but he is clearly internally tormented by the death of his daughter. This internal-external dissonance makes the character of Thomas Craven seem that much more realistic.
Special mention should be made for Danny Huston (“X-Men Origins: Wolverine”) and Damian Young (“Everybody’s Fine”). Huston plays Jack Bennett, the head of Northmoor International, while Young plays U.S. Senator Jim Pine. Both characters play similar roles and have similar characteristics, such as their high-class East Coast accents and strong sense of self-interest. Each is the kind of character that would smile and shake your hand before stabbing you in the back. While corrupt businessmen and politicians are common action-thriller stock characters, the overall callousness and egocentricity of Bennett and Pine elicit a genuine feeling of revulsion: the hallmark of a good villain.
In terms of plot, the film’s themes of corporate and governmental corruption may not be as fresh in 2010 as they were in 1985. The major story elements come pretty much as expected, but Craven’s investigation unfolds in a way that’s entertaining and engaging to watch. Watching the film gives an idea of how difficult it can be to uncover the truth when you’re up against a major corporation backed by the federal government.
On the whole, the plot has a solid flow that makes logical narrative sense. One notable exception is a superfluous scene near the end of the film where British corporate clean-up man Jedburgh (Ray Winstone, “Sex & Drugs & Rock & Roll”) has a meeting with Senator Pine and two government advisers. In the scene, Jedburgh briefly describes his views of America as a country. Given the minimal plot impact the rest of the scene has on the film, it seems as though it was only left in to deliver Jedburgh’s line. The scene doesn’t detract so much from the plot that it negatively affects it, but it certainly sticks out.
Worth mentioning in the film is the amount of graphic violence. When Emma is shot in the opening scene, the audience is exposed to the full gory extent of her wounds. The camera does not shy away from scenes of violence in “Edge of Darkness.” Fortunately, the film doesn’t go so overboard as to make itself an exploitative gorefest. Rather, it lends gravity to the acts of violence in the movie, which help the film’s sense of gritty realism.
The only thing challenging this sense of realism is intermittent hallucinations Craven has of his daughter. It’s understandable that one might think they hear or see their loved ones after they die, but the way they were inserted in to the film sticks out oddly when contrasted with the rest of the movie’s more realistic feeling “Edge of Darkness” is the perfect film for Mel Gibson to return to the world of acting. With excellent characters and well-used gore effects, the movie has a sense of rawness and realism that make it that much more engaging. Though the plot at large is somewhat predictable, the way in which it unfolds is what keeps the movie from becoming another hackneyed revenge
3 1/2 stars out of 5.
