Edge of Darkness review

It's an interesting world that of trailers and promotions. I can say that this year so far there have been quite a few crappily cut trailer releases for movies with good buzz or good people behind it that make you question why the trailer is so bad. Now with some it's faith that you'll see it on and hope that your favorite stars won't let you down. And some is just believing that the good hype was from people that share your tastes. "Edge of Darkness" had a trailer that I hated. I mean I got sick of it after two views, nearly forgot about the movie even coming out and saw little to be impressed with for it to be A: the return of Mel Gibson, actor and B: director Martin Campbell's follow up to "Casino Royale", his best directorial accomplishment to date. And even with good word of mouth before the release I was still pretty 'meh' about it all. Welp I was fucking wrong; this movie kicks some serious ass and not just in the literal sense.

Based on a BBC series from 1985 that Campbell directed, it's really a noir story about a cop's daughter that gets killed and works for this mysterious company. The first 40 minutes to an hour is really bringing up minor clues and lots of questions and questionable characters; the main being Jedburgh played fantastically by Ray Winstone. Jedburgh is like Michael Clayton with a gun in a sense. He's someone who's is called in to 'fix' situations that don't appear to be able to be handled in any other fashion. Interestingly enough though he takes on a more personal interest in Gibson's Thomas Craven character and in a way does his part to help lead him in the right direction. Jedburgh's reasoning? Well that's of his own mind and left for you to fully figure out, but that's part of the allure. Much of "Edge of Darkness" works like a true blue British crime drama.

The major differences between crime dramas in the U.S. and in the U.K. is that over seas they use some of the clitche's of crime noir to their advantage and they seek to tell more complex stories with characters that are equally complex and often on various levels. You get hints to what they're thinking and maybe why they're thinking that way, but you don't hear it said in so many words. A lot of times in the states we'll have a piece of that pie, but rarely all of it assembled. The reason is because we don't take too kindly to British film pacing when it comes to action pictures, which would explain the overly action packed American like trailer. But make no mistake, this is a Brit picture to the core. It's also co-written by Oscar winning screenwriter William Monahan, writer of "The Departed" and "Kingdom of Heaven". Monahan has a great flow to his dialogue where sometimes the best thing said is nothing at all and sometimes those ridiculously hoecky lines in the trailer, roll out dynamically in their proper noir like setting.

And now to Gibson. I had a long talk with a friend about this after the movie comparing the antics and believability of Gibson vs. Harrison Ford in a role like this. We agreed that Gibson has a certain thing about it where we could see him being this guy and you get his emotion through the character in roles like this. Here he's got a strong Boston accent and it's pretty damn good, but what surprised me was really just how old they made him look, but didn't make him into a superhero kind of like Liam Neeson in "Taken". The violence is bloody, brutal and rough; so it doesn't feel as stylized as it either. Actually it's more like a Cronenberg picture in that respect, but it's great either way. Howard Shore also delivers a fantastic score that when it hits that third act becomes the cherry on top of the already terrifically made thriller.

And I do mean thriller. There are some great sequences of tension and it's built around wondering who is watching or listening in and what is Craven going to do next. Pissed off as he is, he's not going around shaking everybody down. He knows when to talk and when to fight, but still you don't want to fuck with this guy. The story's complexity and paranoia aspects work okay, but not in that "Parallax View" sort of way or a "Silkwood" sort of way. Closer to something like "The International". And I just have to commend really the Hollywood system. This is the first time in recent memory where major studios have released really good and entertaining films so early and I hope it continues throughout the year.

I've seen three genre pictures that were skillfully made and entertaining this month. Hell I'd package them together and tell you to pull a triple feature on them, but these are the sort of films studios should turn out. It doesn't matter if they're action films, comedies, horror, romantic comedies... but they need to have characters, interesting or at least interestingly told stories and an impressive cast and crew that seem like they want to make this movie and not just toss out a hunk of shit for a few million. Oh and while you're at it, START CUTTING SOME TRAILERS THAT ACTUALLY DISPLAY THE GOOD ASPECTS OF THE MOVIE! I'm sick of hearing things are good, when the evidence isn't there for me or the rest of John Q public. Hopefully people will still give "Edge of Darkness" a shot even with shitacular ads because it's very much worth the price of admission.