Edge of Darkness Review

Published by Jeff Leins on January 30, 2010

After a seven year hiatus from acting, Mel Gibson and his scowling features return to the silver screen more creased and fatigued than you might remember and angrier than he’s ever been.   Channeling the vintage Mad Mel of Payback and Ransom, the 56-year-old glowers his way through yet another revenge plot in a formidable comeback performance as the “guy with nothing to lose.”

In Edge of Darkness, Gibson’s Thomas Craven is out for blood after his only daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic), takes a fatal shotgun blast to the belly on their front porch.  Soon the grieving father is aiming a Glock in the face of anyone with answers, uncovering a corporate conspiracy in the process.

Martin Campbell adapts his own six-part BBC miniseries by condensing the tense British drama into a more explosive Bostonian fury.  Gibson’s gravely voice drops his R’s in a more consistently convincing accent than Julianne Moore’s atrocious attempts on “30 Rock.”  While screenwriters William Monahan and Andrew Bovell dabble with the boilerplate of a corrupt rabbit hole and the conventions of a man on a mission sizzler.

Occupying the same release slot Taken dominated last year, this vigilante dad delivers far less energy and more plot contrivances.  High-paced chases are instead stalking scenes, though a familiar brutality is shown to his prey.  Interrogations are weighted in suspense due to point of view cutaways that keep the audience one step ahead of Craven.

As a homicide detective, his nagging instincts keep him from believing he was the intended target, and a visit from Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) confirms those suspicions.  In a British-American role reversal from the serial, the Cockney, smooth-talking hitman spares Craven’s life and diverts his attention to Northmoor, a top secret research and development company with strong political ties.

Besides Danny Huston’s nefarious CEO, Craven encounters a cliched cast of hippie activists, black Suburban-driving clean-up artists, an uncaring lawyer, and a smarmy Senator.  Each adds another log to the slow burn until a rushed third act and cop out conclusion collapses under the sheer amount of shady characters.

Gibson rescues Edge of Darkness from the trappings of a “cop who plays by his own rules” drama with a fierce performance, but perhaps it’s because he’s been there and done that.  His growling turn is captivating enough, but in time it will bleed into the genre of one man army flicks with his other career entries.

3 out of 5.