Edge of Darkness

Got to check out Edge of Darkness today with my co-host from the Games, Movies & More podcast.

Mel Gibson finally makes his return to the silver screen in this movie after an almost 6 years of absence. Most people remember his last movie being the awful Signs, but afterward he produced and starred in the somewhat lackluster Paparazzi. Mel Gibson plays Detective Thomas Craven, a member of the Boston Police Force. A fairly straightforward man, everything is normal until he picks up his 24 year old daugher Emma, from the train station.

Later in the evening, she is shot and killed, dying in his arms. The police first believe he is the target as he has been on the police force many years. He begins to think otherwise when trying to find out the truth of who killed his daughter. Opposite Gibson is Ray Winstone playing a clean up agent named Darius Jedburgh. He is supposed to stop Craven from finding out the truth. The two have a mutual respect for each other, and Jedburgh decides to leave Craven to his business. What follows is deception, government cover ups, and some decent story telling.

For Mel Gibson's first movie back, this was a good choice. Not an over the top action movie, a slower movie with sometimes (almost times too much so) sluggish pacing with Gibson playing his typical revenge role. Overall, the story was very good, once it all played out. There were however, certain parts of the movie where I felt like falling asleep. You really do feel for Craven while he is trying to find out the truth behind his daughters death. You feel the all of the hurt and anger built up in him. Even with taking off all these years, Gibson has not lost his ability to act. I was a bit worried at first, but that quickly diminished after seeing him in this role.

I only have one other gripe with this movie aside from the pacing, and that is some of the dialogue. I don't know why Hollywood decides to make a story take place in Boston they insist on making all of the actors speak in a terribly overdone Boston accent. I've been to Massachusetts before, and never was the accent as bad as it is in these movies. They severly need to tone this down. At times, the dialogue was almost incomprehensible. It was like playing fill in the blanks, and make up your own story. Please Hollywood, calm down a little bit with this in the future.

Overall it was a pretty decent movie. I'd give it 3 stars out of 5. I hope Mel Gibson continues to work after this film, as it was a good return for him.