EDMOND — ** — William H. Macy, Julia Stiles; rated R (profanity, violence, vulgarity, nudity, gore, racial epithets, sex, rape).
William H. Macy has made a career of playing sad-sack characters like the one in "Edmond."
The difference here is that his character is basically serving as a mouthpiece for playwright David Mamet, who wrote the original 1982 stage play while he was going through a particularly nasty divorce.
Consequently, as watchable as Macy can be, this talky think piece is tough going. Portions of it could be interpreted as misogynistic and racist, as well as offensive because of its strong R-rated language.
Macy stars as the title character, Edmond Burke, whose life takes a drastic turn for the worse after he receives a dire fortune from a tarot-card reader.
First, Edmond tells his wife (Mamet's current partner Rebecca Pidgeon) that he doesn't love her and that he wants a divorce. And while wandering the streets, he begins a descent into depravity that includes a deadly confrontation with a hustler (Lionel Mark Smith), a brief affair with a waitress (Julia Stiles) and considerably worse things.
Mamet, who has reworked portions of his play, must have called in some favors to get this high-profile cast. In addition to Macy and Stiles, there are also glorified cameos from Joe Mantegna, Denise Richards, Debi Mazar, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari and George Wendt.
Mamet has also reteamed with veteran horrormeister Stuart Gordon, who directed some early versions of his plays. But Gordon's direction here lacks any subtlety, as does this bitter material.
"Edmond" is rated R for strong sexual language (including frequent use of profanity and crude sexual slang), some strong violence (beatings, a stabbing and violence against women), female and full male nudity, gore, use of racial epithets, simulated sex and sexual violence (including an implied scene of prison rape). Running time: 82 minutes.
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