Edge of Darkness

Edge of Darkness (2010)
Warner Bros. Pictures
Directed by Martin Campbell
Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston

With Martin Campbell’s original 1985 BBC television series, Edge of Darkness, being such a well-received title, Hollywood would hope that the big screen version would also be successful. Unfortunately, even though both have the same director, the film version of Edge of Darkness is an average revenge and political thriller. Massachusetts homicide detective Thomas Craven (Gibson) meets with his daughter after being away from her for a long time. One evening as they are heading for the hospital because of her mysterious illness, Emma Craven is shot at his doorstep. Believing that the shot was targeted towards him, Craven begins investigating and obsessing over the case. He soon learns that his daughter was the target of a government cover-up, and it’s up to Craven to reveal it. It is a basic, well overdone plot, with lots of hard-to-follow twists and secondary plotlines.

This is Mel Gibson’s first acting role since 2002’s Signs and We Were Soldiers. Though he has been busy directing, it is nice to see Mel return from his recent incidents and make another action film. His acting his vintage Mel, but his Boston accent is horrible in this film. It is over emphasized and takes away from the seriousness of the story. At some points it is hard to concentrate on the story when all you can hear is his butchered Boston accent.

The plot of Edge of Darkness is very basic, but it has a lot of details and sub-stories within it to make it very complex. The primary plot is with Craven investigating his daughter’s murder. As this is going on, there are many other stories that intertwine into the main story. Each of those are revealed as the conspiracy begins to unravel. Whether this was done on purpose or not is in question, but the message is that the story always goes deeper. Besides Craven, there are stories that involve the company CEO, a senator, and a cover-up man. There is a tremendous amount of material for this two hour movie. If it were longer it would be easier to flesh out the stories and not make it seem so crammed. The biggest story that needs fleshing is the one involving the cover-up man, Darius Jedburgh (Winstone). He is a CIA agent who has been sent in by the government to cover up the radiation poisoning at Northmoor’s plants. Ray Winstone is a powerful actor and it would have been nice to see him get more of a backstory for his actions and decisions.

Like the original, Edge of Darkness has strong messages of paranoia towards the government. The original television show was paranoia towards nuclear warfare in the 1980’s. The new film also touches upon that subject with the idea that the saboteurs are poisoned with radiation. Northmoor is a government funded company that builds nuclear bombs, but can be traced back to other countries. There are many people who believe that the government has or will do this, causing paranoia throughout the country. This is a strong message in a time when the War in Iraq is very poorly-received and the United States citizens do not trust the government and believe that the politicians are lying to them. This is evident from the WMD issue.

Edge of Darkness is a political thriller, not as powerful as The Manchurian Candidate, but works for the action genre. Mel Gibson gives another strong performance as he is trying to investigate the scandals of the Northmoor Company. The plot is basic on the surface, but once the details unravel, the story becomes more complex with too many characters and sub-stories. Edge of Darkness is a good revenge thriller with a popular message, but is nothing more than an average action film with strong performances and a very complex plot that requires multiple viewings.

Rating: C


July 1, 2010