Edge of Darkness is one of those movies that feels old school where people say “they don’t make them like they this anymore” but, in reality, it tries to be too modern while keeping it’s old-school credentials. Mel Gibson, returning to acting after years of directing films and abusing police officers, looks decidedly old school; greying hair and a distinctly craggy face. It’s good to see someone who hasn’t gone the plastic fantastic way; his face actually moves even if he isn’t the most emotional or, indeed, expressive of actors.
The character he plays, a tough Boston detective who witnesses his daughter being murdered beside him, feels like a character that he’s played a dozen times with either his daughter being murdered or kidnapped or his wife, either way its a very interchangeable role in these kinds of films. There is nothing to distinct this part from any other part that Gibson has played, nothing to make the story of government and corporation corruption any different from any other hundred other films. Even the bad guy is played by Danny Huston, a man who’s been evil in so many movies that people must struggle talking to him without booing and hissing. Ray Winstone, normally a man who can raise a mediocre film to something greater feels like he’s being held back, stopped from doing what he does best and instead reading his lines in a monotone with no facial expression. Sure, he’s meant to be a stone cold killer but that doesn’t mean he can’t have a personality. “Do you see a soul in there?” he says to a doctor in a scene which meant nothing to the story and felt grossly out-of-place when fitted with a story that centred on Mel Gibson’s embittered cop. Yes, he’s on a quest for vengeance and naturally shoots first and asks questions later.
Mediocre is the right word this movie. It’s not bad, there are a couple of thrilling action scenes and dependable performances by a great cast but they can’t blanket a weak, boring script that does nothing to differentiate itself from a hundred other identikit movies.
