Edge of Darkness

I awaited Edge of Darkness's release with much anticipation. Mel Gibson to me, has been a star in the lurch lately. I could care less about the stuff he's said away from the camera. It's much more interesting to focus on his choices behind the lens, such as Passion of the Christ and Apocalypto. While I enjoyed both films to different degrees, Mel Gibson to me will always be Riggs from Lethal Weapon, or William Wallace in Braveheart. Edge of Darkness at least promised to give me  back the action hero Gibson. If it was anything like Payback, I'd walk away pretty pleased.  Pleased is not exactly the word I'd use to describe how I felt when this was over.

Gibson plays tough guy Boston cop, Thomas Craven.It's a well worn role for Gibson, and he slips into it with ease. Craven's a nice enough sort away from the beat. A single father, his only real passion seems to be the well-being of his daughter, Emma. Emma works for a shady corporation known as Northmoor, which sounds a birthing ground for ogres in Lord of the Rings. She comes home one day out of the blue, homesick she says. She's coughing and throwing up. Thomas, like us, suspects pregnancy. If only that were the case. On their way out to hopefully figure out what her sickness might be, they are met by a masked man who promptly shoots Emma in the chest. The assumption is that he was the intended target, him being a cop and all. Must've been a past case come back to haunt him, and Emma was just an innocent victim.

Thomas's investigation leads him to some shady dealings and scurrilous figures in the world his daughter inhabited. She was far more than an intern, as she claims. He is led to Northmoor, where he runs afoul of the company's CEO, Jack Bennett(Danny Huston). Bennett is a snake oil salesman if there ever was one, but he is polite enough to humor Thomas and his questions. Bennett, in a shocking reveal of his true evil nature, asks Thomas pointblank, "How does it feel?" We never hear his response. It should've been met with a swift kick in the groin.

Edge of Darkness is based on a BBC miniseries that ran way back in 1985. Having seen some of it myself, I remember it having a lot more action and political manueverings than this stripped down version. It moves often at a glacial pace, with long stretches of conversation that often go nowhere. Mel Gibson is the only redeeming thread for most of these scenes. Even at this stage of his career, his command over the screen is great. He makes Thomas Craven both a fearsome sentinel that you wouldn't want to meet in a dark alley, and yet the next moment he cracks a joke that could make the whole room smile. But behind those jokes, there's a sense of intense pain and anger that's barely being contained.

That pain and anger comes out in brief bursts of violence. This isn't the action packed blitz I was hoping for and expecting. Director Martin Campbell, who most recently won raves for Casino Royale, struggles find a balance. This film wants desperately to be one of those throwback Gibson actioners, but the heavy political aspect the story drowns it out. You'll love Thomas Craven, and you'll want desperately for him to succeed and find some happiness, but you'll also want him to go out and actually kick somebody's butt. It doesn't happen often enough.

The biggest surprise for me was just how lacking in any real suspense there was. We know from fairly early on who the villain is. This is no fault of Huston's, but Jack Bennett might as well have been a James Bond villain. All he needed was a little scar over his cheek or to bleed tears or something. This film needed a serious adrenaline injection, and perhaps to not take itself so damn seriously. It's almost too gritty for it's own good. The only conversations with any real sizzle are between Thomas and Jedburgh(Ray Winstone). Jedburgh is a CIA agent who's sortof playing the middle. He's sent to cover up Emma's murder, but part of him wants to see Thomas succeed. I could watch Ray Winstone look bearish and menacing all day.

While I'm happy to see Gibson reaching back somewhat to what he does best, Edge of Darkness is like an appetizer when you really want the main course. It seems like middle aged action heroes are all the rage lately thanks to last year's Taken. As much as I like Liam Neeson, if he had been in this film it would've been worse. Mel Gibson's charisma is the only thing keeping this standard, paint by numbers political thriller afloat.