My Review: Edge of Darkness (8/10)

¨ Well you had better decide whether you're hanging on the cross or banging in the nails.¨

(8/0) Mel Gibson is back doing what he does best, revenge movies. When I watched the trailer for this film, I was excited because the man from Lethal Weapon, Payback, Braveheart and The Patriot was back doing action movies. Mel Gibson hadn`t starred in a movie since 2002 when he played the reverend who had lost his faith in Signs (one of my favorite films), but in that movie he didn`t have many action scenes. So it was great for me to see Mel Gibson back in action, although the film is not your typical revenge movie, it actually has a good plot and story which makes this a decent thriller. The main reason for this is that director Martin Campell (Casino Royale and The Mask of Zorro) had Oscar winning screenwriter, William Monahan (The Departed and Kingdom of Heaven) to adapt the screenplay for Edge of Darkness. Martin Campell had directed the BBC mini-series of the same name back in 1985 (which aired in England) and now he decided to make it a two hour movie so he needed the best writers in the business to make this possible. It was probably a lot of material to condense, but I think they did a good job of getting the main points across without leaving the action aside. The film reminded me a lot of last year`s State of Play which starred Russell Crowe and also dealt with corporate greed and cover-ups. This is probably not a better film, but it is much better and smarter than most movies out so far this year.

Thomas Craven (Mel Gibson) is a Boston detective who has dedicated his life with the police force. He lives alone in his traditional Boston home, and he has a 24 year old daughter named Emma (Bojana Novakovic) who lives in another city and doesn`t communicate very much with him. But she has decided to come visit her father in Boston and Thomas is very excited about receiving her. You can tell that despite not having good communication between each other they do love and respect each other and they have a good relationship. However the night she gets to her house Emma is killed in the front porch. At first it seemed as though the shooter intended to kill Thomas and that they had accidently shot her daughter, but as Thomas begins to investigate he discovers some revealing things about his daughter and her job. He begins to investigate her workplace and makes many people uncomfortable because they seem to be hiding some crucial information. Her daughter worked for a nuclear corporation sponsored by the government and every employee had security contracts that didn`t allow them to speak about their jobs. The manager of the corporation is Jack Bennett (Danny Huston who had a similar role in The Constant Gardner) and Thomas suspects he knows more about what happened to his daughter. The company sends Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) a British specialist who is good at not letting people find answers. He and Thomas share the best scenes of the movie together as they discuss the case. The movie begins to escalate as Thomas continues to discover more revealing things about his daughter`s secret past.

Edge of Darkness is a great thriller and I really enjoyed the plot and the dialogue of the film. I thought that the scenes Mel Gibson and Ray Winstone shared together were probably the best ones in the movie. As much as I liked Mel Gibson I have to admit that the true star of this film was Ray Winstone. He absolutely stole each scene he was in and hopefully he will get more and more roles in Hollywood. The cast in the film was great. There is a lot of dialogue in the movie and if you don`t pay attention you can miss on a lot of things that are going on. Edge of Darkness is not just a revenge movie where Mel Gibson kills off everyone involved in her killing; it is much more than that. I thought this was a clever thriller and I was drawn to the story from the beginning. I never had the chance to see the BBC miniseries which consisted of six episodes, but I think they did a great job anyway turning it into this two hour movie. Martin Campell is a great director, he proved it when he directed Casino Royale and revived the James Bond franchise. In this thriller he combines the drama with the action scenes very well to make this one of the best thrillers of the year. It is good to see Mel Gibson back starring in a main role as well so I recommend this film!