Movie Review-"Edge of Darkness"

By Christian Toto http://www.whatwouldtotowatch.com/

Movie stars are a dying breed.

Not stars who appear in movies. Heck, Larry the Cable Guy qualifies for that distinction.
But actors who can elevate a movie simply with his or her presence remain in short supply.

It’s the reason Mel Gibson’s return to theaters this weekend in “Edge of Darkness” is such a treat.

His voice is raspier now, and his face appears etched in a way we haven’t seen from him before.
But that intensity remains untouched in the eight years since his last major film role, during which time his off-screen headlines damaged his public persona.

So does his knack for bringing a gritty realism to less than Oscar-worthy material.
“Darkness” casts Gibson as Thomas Craven, a Boston detective happy to welcome his 24-year-old daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic), back home.

She doesn’t seem like her old self, though. And before father and daughter can properly reconnect she’s murdered on Thomas’ front porch.

The local cops think the killer was gunning for Thomas and hit the wrong target. But Thomas isn’t so sure.

He starts digging into his daughter’s connections and quickly finds a rogues gallery of suspicious characters. Her daughter’s boyfriend is as jittery as a meth head, and one galpal turns pale the moment Thomas asks her his first question.

The film piles conspiracy atop conspiracy, a lazy storytelling trope made worse when Danny Huston appears as Emma’s former boss.

He might as well be wearing sandwich boards shouting, “hello, I’ll be your villain for the evening.”

The mystery surroundng Emma’s death takes its sweet time to reveal itself, but the core elements won’t challenge audiences’ expectations. The one wild card comes courtesy of Ray Winstone. The wiley character actor plays a mysterious agent who is either working with or against Thomas, depending on the scene.

“Edge of Darkness” provides a limited number of thrills, but it gives Gibson the chance to remind us of his range. He battles back against a younger, stronger opponent early in the film to show he’s still a lethal weapon when needed.

Later, he chases a news reporter off his lawn with a smart blend of gruff and tender words.

“Darkness,” co-written by “The Departed” scribe William Monahan, provides some Boston color to distingish the film from similarly generic titles. Gibson’s Boston accent needs work, but it’s not crude enough to distract our attention.

The film exploits Emma’s death mercilessly right up until the final sequence. The first time
Thomas starts talking to her following his death it tugs at our heart. The fifth time? We greet the moment with a heavy sigh.

“Edge of Darkness” doesn’t aspire to greatness, but if its only accomplishment is luring Gibson back to a movie its mission is already accomplished.