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The film opens with Craven picking up his daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) at the airport. The two seem distant from each other and have a hard time communicating. Shortly there after they are sitting down to a dinner at Craven’s home when Emma becomes violently ill and runs out the front door to get to the car to go to the hospital. When Emma opens the door she is shot to death by a masked man. The question remains, who was the target, was it Emma the seemingly innocent young woman or the veteran police detective who had put countless criminals behind bars. From that catalyst event the movie takes off as Craven searches from answers to his daughter’s death. Little did he know that those answers would be protected by the highest levels of government.
In this film Gibson’s age is starting to show, he is no longer the man who gave us such brilliant performances as the courageous and inspirational William Wallace in Braveheart or the risky and entertaining Martin Riggs in Lethal Weapon. His acting has its moments but they are few and far between. He tries his best to carry a supporting cast that is laughable at times. He has scenes with actors who look like they should be working in community theatre instead of Hollywood. However, actors as a whole did not have much to work with as the dialogue in the script was at times so predictable and cheesy it was laughable.
I was also expecting more from veteran director Martin Campbell, who directed all six episodes of the TV series Edge of Darkness in 1985. Campbell has been the director for the best two James Bond films of the last 15 years in GoldenEye and Casino Royale. This time around Campbell seemed to be more focused on his next project the much anticipated Green Lantern. With a dry and predictable script Campbell needed to engage the audience with his directorial flare and but instead the film resigns itself to attempting to shock the audience with pointless plot twists and needless and excessive violent deaths.
I was looking forward to Mel Gibson’s return to the big screen and I was intrigued by the films premise. Sadly with a dull script, a lackluster cast, and an uninspired director Edge of Darkness does not keep you anywhere near the edge of your seat. While the film managed to keep me interested enough to want to know how the film would end, the journey to that ending was not worth the price of admission. I give Edge of Darkness 2 out of 5 stars. | 