EDGE OF DARKNESS — ★★ — Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston; rated R (violence, profanity, gore, slurs, torture, brief drugs, vulgarity, nude photos); in general release
Like its main character, played by Mel Gibson, "Edge of Darkness" gets progressively crazier.
But as strange as it sounds, the crazier the film gets the more watchable it becomes. This extremely R-rated revenge-thriller — which was loosely based on a well-regarded, 1985 British television series — isn't great cinema, mind you. It's full of messages about the supposed "merits" of vigilante-style justice and taking matters into your own hands.
Yet there's also something viscerally satisfying about watching the flinty Gibson get to the bottom of this film's mystery. Perhaps "perversely watchable" might be the right term to describe the film.
Gibson stars as Thomas Craven, a veteran Boston police detective whose daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic), is gunned down on his doorstep.
Craven believes that he was the intended target of the shooting. And his Boston P.D. co-workers are going under the same assumption.
But as the grieving, revenge-minded father continues digging, he soon discovers that his daughter may have been involved with an activist group — one whose members also turned up dead recently.
Her employer, Jack Bennett (Danny Huston), appears to know more than he's revealing. And a mystery man (Ray Winstone) turns up in Craven's backyard to warn him that he may be too close to the truth for his own good.
Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale," "The Mask of Zorro") was a good choice for director. He keeps the action and pacing moving, even when things appear to get mired in plotting convolutions and contrivances.
As for Gibson, his Massachusetts accent isn't entirely convincing. But at least he resists hamming it up, as does Winstone, whose character is the most interesting one in this mess.
If only alleged character actor Huston (the son of the legendary John Huston) could have shown some measure of restraint as well. He's laughably awful.
"Edge of Darkness" is rated R and features strong, sometimes disturbing violent content and imagery (shootings and gunplay, brawling and fisticuffs, knife play, vehicular mayhem, including an auto-pedestrian collision, and violence against women), strong sexual language (mostly profanity), gory and bloody imagery, derogatory language and slurs, a scene of violent interrogation, brief drug content and references (over-the-counter medications and prescriptions), a couple of off-color references (slang), and glimpses of nude photos. Running time: 117 minutes.
e-mail: jeff@desnews.com