Where is it playing?: Santa Maria 10, Movies Lompoc, Hi-Way Drive-In
What's it rated?: R
What's it worth?: $6.00
(Brent)
What's it worth?: $7.00
(Roberta)
Grief-stricken Boston homicide detective Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson, in his first starring role since the 2002 film Signs) will do whatever it takes to solve the murder of his grown daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovik). He interrogates her friends and looks into her mysterious workplace, government contractor Northmoor. Along the way, he encounters deadly mercenaries and a scandal-prevention consultant known as Jedberg (Ray Winstone), whose job is to “stop you from getting from Point A to Point B.” This is based on a 1985 BBC television miniseries directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), who also helms this big-screen adaptation.
Brent: When I see a movie, I usually have enough opinions to write three reviews of it, but I don’t have too much to say about this one. It was good. It wasn’t memorably great. There weren’t any unbearable flaws. It was just ... good. I think it might have felt a little more original if it had a more original-sounding title. There are a lot of movie titles with “edge” and “darkness” in the them, and a lot with “of,” for that matter. In fact, there wasanother, unrelated film called Edge of Darkness released by Warner Bros. in 1943. (Maybe it sounded more original back then?) Personally, I’m just going to call it “That New Mel Gibson Movie.”
Roberta: Mel played it very well. It was good seeing him back. He showed his emotional side as an actor. When he was going through his daughter’s belongings, wasn’t that emotional? Especially in flashbacks, he was so loving, like in one where she was a little girl, pretending to “shave” with him with a comb. That was so cute. It was such a beautifully simple way of establishing their relationship.
Brent: I think Mel’s time behind the camera as a director has served him well as an actor. When he was spreading his daughter’s ashes at the beach—here I am saying this movie isn’t too memorable, yet I’m getting choked up all over again just thinking of that scene. When he would talk to his daughter as though she were still there with him, it didn’t feel like a cheesy sympathy ploy, it felt real. (Though, having seen The Lovely Bones a couple weeks ago, I did joke, “She’s in the Inbetween!”) Mel also did a very convincing, natural-sounding Boston accent.
Roberta: I was thinking that’s how he really talks, so he must have done it well. Craven was tender with his daughter, but when he went after the bad guys, he was intense.
Brent: The movie starts out as a relatively realistic police drama, but eventually winds up as an action-packed one-man-against-a-corrupt-world thriller.
Roberta: It worked for me, though.
Brent: It worked for me, too. I just wanted to point out how it shifted like that. They could have kept going with the more realistic cop stuff and wound up with a very different movie, though not necessarily a better one.
Roberta: I felt the fear some young people he was questioning were feeling (that they might be killed by the bad guys if they helped him). However, Emma’s boyfriend was in a little too much turmoil. Like, if it was dialed down a bit, he would have been more sympathetic. He had just lost his girlfriend, though, so maybe that was why he seemed like he had cracked up. Emma’s co-worker was more like she was very nervous and afraid. She wanted to help, but she was so scared. The actress did a wonderful job. The movie wasn’t predictable—it had moments of surprise. The opening was a well-done dramatic scene of bodies bobbing up in the water. That wasn’t explained right away, which made it interesting. It preserved the mystery. Didn’t you kind of wonder where it was going?
Brent: One of the more interesting aspects of the movie was the charming, morally conflicted character of Jedberg. He’s quite a mysterious figure. (For one thing, you have to wonder how he managed to steal Bob Hoskins’ voice.)
Roberta: Jedberg should have been hated for what he was doing, but the way Winstone played him, I thought he was fascinating. He stayed so smooth and calm. He captured what someone in that capacity would be like.
Brent: I have just one sequence I want to pick on. At one point, Craven is captured, only to escape almost immediately, and I had to wonder: Why did they bother? And why didn’t the bad guys, who have racked up several murders by this point, just kill him? Oh well, at least we’re spared the “hand over your badge and gun” scene that typically pops up in these “cop acting alone” movies. Detective Craven’s boss, in his lone appearance, is more interested in milking our hero for PR value than reprimanding him. There’s some stuff in the film about political and corporate corruption, too. Nothing that would shock Mel’s character from Conspiracy Theory (or anyone who’s been to a movie in the last few years), but it’s done decently enough. Overall, a strong star performance from Gibson ties the movie together and makes it work.
Brent M. Parker is a writer, artist, and aspiring animated filmmaker. Roberta Slutske is his proud mother who taught him everything he knows. Contact them at mail@santamariasun.com.
