Edge of Darkness

Can this revenge thriller restore Mel Gibson's reputation?

by scott von doviak

Edge of Darkness — It's been eight long years since Mel Gibson headlined a major motion picture, an eternity for any A-list actor. That Gibson has spent much of the interim in the tabloids makes his attempt at a comeback anything but sure, but the one-time lethal weapon has tried to stack the odds in his favor by hewing as closely to his established screen persona as possible.

Edge of Darkness, a remake of a 1985 British miniseries also directed by Martin Campbell (Casino Royale), stars Gibson as Thomas Craven, a Boston homicide detective out for vengeance. The film opens with Craven's estranged adult daughter, Emma, arriving for a visit. Their reunion proves short-lived when she's gunned down on the front steps of his house by a killer presumably targeting Craven himself. Against the wishes of his police department, Craven sets about solving the murder himself.

Craven's investigation leads him to Emma's employer, Northmoor, a secretive energy corporation with lucrative government contracts related to the nation's nuclear stockpile. Northmoor's CEO is a shady character played by Danny Huston, so it's not too much of a leap to assume he's somehow connected to Emma's murder. The conspiracy Craven begins to unravel also encompasses a radical environmental group, a mysterious "fixer" named Jedburgh (Ray Winstone), and even a Republican senator from Massachusetts, of all implausible things.

The original Edge of Darkness drew much of its power from the nuclear paranoia of the 1980s, as well as a powerhouse performance by Joe Don Baker as Jedburgh. But it also had six hours in which to untangle its web of conspiracy. To its credit, the new adaptation by William Monahan (who has previous experience transplanting a foreign thriller to Beantown with The Departed) and Andrew Bovell retains much of the original plot's complexity while updating its political subtext to the 24 era. Unfortunately, this fidelity often results in talky scenes crammed with exposition, at the expense of character development; Jedburgh, for example, is nowhere near as nuanced here.

In the end, all the plotting is basically thrown out the window anyway to focus on a gun-toting Gibson hunting down the people who've wronged him. Those who prefer the actor in grim-avenger mode will get their money's worth, as there's not much besides a mostly credible Boston accent separating this performance from those that have served him well in movies like Ransom and The Patriot. It remains to be seen whether audiences will welcome him back after his offscreen misadventures, but it's clear that, at least this time around, Mel Gibson is playing it safe.

When In Rome — Has anyone noticed that Kristen Bell seems to choose her acting roles based on the appeal of the location rather than that of the script? Apparently exhausted with tropical paradises after Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Couples Retreat, Bell moves on to the Eternal City as a tourist who attracts unwanted suitors after stealing coins from an enchanted fountain.

North Face — Based on a true story, this German film tells the suspenseful tale of four mountain climbers attempting to scale an icy peak in Switzerland as the Nazi government cheers them on.

Saint John of Las Vegas — Steve Buscemi is a compulsive gambler forced to return to Las Vegas when his insurance company boss (Peter Dinklage) sends him to investigate a possible fraud case. Sarah Silverman co-stars in first-time writer-director Hue Rhodes' reimagining of Dante's Inferno.