Kinoreal
  • Essays
  • Reviews
  • Fantasia
  • Red Brand Studios
  • Français
Black Swan
Black Swan (Darren Aronofsky, 2010)
April 24, 2011
Detective Dee
Detective Dee and the Mystery of the Phantom Flame (Tsui Hark, 2010)
September 7, 2011

Edge Of Darkness (Martin Campbell, 2010)

Edge of Darkness

WHAT IT IS: After witnessing the brutal death of his daughter, a veteran police detective uses his experience and skills to unearth the massive conspiracy and corruption that led to her death.

HOW IT IS: After years of directing his own films while sullying his celebrity status with his anti-semitic remarks and public eccentricities, Mel Gibson is back to form with a genre he excels at: the revenge tale. And to say he excels is an understatement: the grieving eyes; the righteous indignation; the flickering voice; Gibson pulls off the gravitas of the character in a way only he and Harrison Ford are able to.

Martin Campbell’s direction is uneven; effective in the thrilling scenes, but lacking depth the closer he comes to character development. In this, the actors do a phenomenal job of compensating for Campbell’s shortcomings with great performances by Gibson, the consistently solid Danny Huston (whose portrayal of the sleazy villain is disturbing), and gangster-faced Ray Winstone.

William Monahan and Andrew Bovell’s screenplay is strong, in many respects approaching the brilliance of Brian Helgeland’s work in the genre. But, the script falters in critical areas, like the sugary happy-ending or the convoluted plot, the story suffering from a lack of imagination and ridiculously new-age scenes.

Edge of Darkness is a good addition to the revenge thriller genre and a welcomed return to the top of the Hollywood pack for Mel Gibson. However, the movie suffers from Campbell’s underwhelming direction in character-based scenes and the screenplay’s inability to bring anything new to the genre.

IF YOU LIKE: Payback, Mad Max, Frantic, Law Abiding Citizen, Heaven’s Prisoner.

More info on IMDB

  • About
  • Latest Posts
Eric Lafalaise
Follow him
Eric Lafalaise
Head Honcho at Red Brand Studios
Eric Lafalaise mostly communicates by writing and telling stories. He is a contributing writer to the Kinoreal film blog, a producer for Red Brand Studios, an artist, a photographer, a tech freak, and an all-around (left-right) brain nut.
Eric Lafalaise
Follow him
Latest posts by Eric Lafalaise (see all)
  • Black Panther: A Perspective - March 20, 2018
  • Seven Pounds (Gabriele Muccino, 2008) - May 5, 2015
  • Honeymoon (Leigh Janiak, 2014) - January 30, 2015
Share

Related posts

Spectre
November 15, 2015

Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015)


Read more
Seven Pounds
May 5, 2015

Seven Pounds (Gabriele Muccino, 2008)


Read more
12 Years a Slave
April 2, 2014

12 Years a Slave (Steve McQueen, 2013)


Read more

TOP POSTS

Les Carabiniers (Jean-Luc Godard, 1963)
Gyo: Tokyo Fish Attack (Takayuki Hirao, 2012)

AUTHORS

  • 1 Yves-Marie Exumé
    • On the dopeness of Black Panther
  • 1 Olivier Day
    • Spectre (Sam Mendes, 2015)
  • 1 Eric Lafalaise
    • Black Panther: A Perspective
    • Seven Pounds (Gabriele Muccino, 2008)
    • Honeymoon (Leigh Janiak, 2014)

SIGN UP
FOR OUR
NEWSLETTER

Get notifications of new film posts and reviews!

Subscribe

ABOUT KINOREAL

Kinoreal is a blog on the nature of life in film.

TAGS

Ah-in Yoo Arnold Reyes Brad Pitt Cate Blanchett Chadwick Boseman Chia-Hui Liu Ching Wan Lau Christian Bale Daniel Wu Dong-won Gang Donnie Yen Edgar Ramírez Fumika Shimizu Herman Yau Hun Jang Jennifer Connelly Ji-Hoon Ju Joe Odagiri Johnny To Jung-min Hwang Kate Winslet Keanu Reeves Kátia Lund Louis Koo Lupita Nyong'o Michael B. Jordan Paulo José Philip Seymour Hoffman Russell Crowe Ryan Coogler Ryôhei Suzuki Sam Mendes Satoshi Miki Sean Penn Sion Sono Takashi Miike Tilda Swinton Tony Chiu-Wai Leung Tony Ka Fai Leung Tony Scott Tsuyoshi Muro Wilson Yip Yi Huang Yoon-seok Kim Yûichi Fukuda
© Kinoreal. All Rights Reserved.