Edge of Darkness Directed By: Martin Campbell Starring: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic, Shawn Roberts, Jay. O. Sanders Studio: Warner Bros. Year: 2010 Rated: R Film Length: 117 minutes Aspect Ratio: 2.4:1 Subtitles: English SDH, French, Spanish (Latin), Spanish (Castellano) Release Date: May 11, 2010 The Film ***½ Edge of Darkness tells the story of Detective Thomas Craven (Gibson) who doggedly pursues answers to the mystery surrounding the murder of his only child, Emma (Novakovic), on the front porch of his home. While the police investigation centers around the assumption that the assailant was trying to gun down the Detective himself, Craven is not so sure. His own investigation points him in the direction of the large private defense contractor for which Emma worked and its secretive and politically connected CEO, Jack Bennett (Huston). The stakes continue to rise as almost every witness to whom Craven speaks later turns up deceased under mysterious cirumstances. The wild card in this deck of corporate and political intrigue proves to be an "independent operator" named Jedburgh (Winstone) who seems to be straddling the line between nudging Craven's investigation in the right direction and vaguely threatening him if he gets to close to publicly exposing the truth. Edge of Darkness was notable for being Mel Gibson's first appearance as a lead actor in a feature film in eight years. There was also a great deal of interest surrounding the fact that it was his first leading role since his public image had taken a beating due to a 2006 drunken anti-semitic outburst after a traffic stop and some subsequent widely reported personal drama surounding his separation from his wife of nearly 30 years. In this "comeback" role of Thomas Craven, he is in many ways the "same old Mel" (well, slightly older, but it works for the character) that viewers have enjoyed for decades, inclusive of a stubborn determination to achieve his goals despite heavy physical suffering. One new twist is that the character of Craven is atypically introverted compared to many of Gibson's previous roles. This forces him to convey his character without his usual array of broad gestures, which he accomplishes nicely. Gibson is also ably supported by a solid cast. Ray Winstone, in particular, does an outstanding job selling a character who is pretty ridiculous as written. Danny Huston does a serviceable job in the role of the secretive corporate executive seeking to protect his deniability, but the character as written is a pretty dull antagonist. The film is adapted from a mid-80s British television mini-series which was also directed by Martin Campbell. Its strength is the emotional through-line of the plot concerning a father who is trying to solve the mystery surrounding his daughter's murder and ultimately avenge her while simultaneously being haunted by her memory. There are periodic scenes throughout the picture where the deceased Emma interacts briefly with her father, which sound on its face to be a terrible plot device, but actually works quite effectively to emphasize to the audience how deeply felt her loss is to her father. Campbell and screenwriter William Monahan wisely avoid anything as cornball as her ghostly presence showing up to point out clues or say "Look out behind you", so her post-mortem interactions with her father feel like a reasonable emotional extension of the flashbacks to his childhood memories of her. This strong emotional through-line, as well as Campbell's skill at pacing and Howard Shore's amelodic yet effective score keep the movie moving along despite a number of less successful elements that could have otherwise derailed it. In particular, the film lacks a strong antagonist, with the Bennett character being written as just a little too typical of a corporate sleazeball to properly register as the formidable opponent he is supposed to be. If the Bennett character is a bit under-written, exactly the opposite is the case for the character of Jedburgh. He is written as too-cutesy of a deadly man of mystery. This means that he gets all of the best lines, which is not the problem so much as the fact that he has so many of them. As a bit of trivia, Ray Winstone was cast in this role at the 11th hour after Robert DeNiro walked out of the production due to reported "creative differences". While not the original intent, casting the British Winstone in the Jedburgh role creates an inversion of the original mini-series which was set in England with Joe Don Baker playing Jedburgh as an American CIA agent. A number of the film's signature moments seem to be occurring mostly because they make for a cool movie scene. These moments will often strike the viewer as implausible if they reflect analytically on what they just watched. The best example of this is a scene in which a character is hit by a car in a way that is very effective in the cinematic moment, but defies the laws of physics and common sense upon further reflection. It is to Campbell's credit that he paces the film such that the viewer rarely has time to reflect on such things. The Video **** The 1080p VC-1 encoded transfer is appropriately letterboxed to the film's original theatrical aspect ratio of 2.4:1. The film's pallette is purposely a bit desaturated, and the blu-ray presentation reflects that faithfully. As the films' title might suggest, it is also frequently very darkly lit, and this is handled very well with an appropriate range of contrast with good shadow detail. While the intentionally grimy pallette will prevent this film from being considered demo material for folks wanting to show of their home theaters, its faithful rendering, the appropriate range of contrast, and the film-like fine detail make it an aesthetically appropriate presentation of the material. The Audio ****½ The DTS-HD MA 5.1 English audio presents the expected excellent lossless fidelity. The mix employs the surrounds consistently but subtly to create a three dimensional ambient environment, but where it really excels is in its dynamic range. The violence in the film tends to erupt suddenly and unexpectedly, and the mix always provides enough dynamic headroom for these moments to be effective in a close-listening home theater environment. Alternate 640kbps Dolby Digital language tracks are presented in French, Spanish (Latin), and Spanish (Castellano). S/T: English SDH, French, Spanish, Spanish (Castellano) The Extras *** When the disc is first inserted into a player, a series of promos play. They are skippable by chaptering through them with the player remote, but "menu" button functionality is annoyingly not allowed. They are presented in VC-1 encoded 1080p video with Dolby Digital 2.0 audio): - Warner BD Promo (1:48)
- Warner Digital Copy Promo (:48)
- Sex and the City 2 Teaser Trailer (1:21)
- Mel's Back (4:00) consists largely of the various interview participants talking about what is so great about Mel Gibson along with some slightly more interesting information from the man himself about how he approached his character. Comments are provided by Producer Graham King, Director Martin Campbell, Ray Winstone, Editor Stuart Baird, Danny Huston, Writer William Monahan, Shawn Roberts, Mel Gibson, Bojana Novakovic, and Director of Photography Phil Meheux
- Making a Ghost Character Real (3:32) deals with how the character of Emma was incorporated into the film after her demise in the firs reel. Interview participants include Campbell, Monahan, Novakovic, Baird, Gibson, and King
- Scoring the "Edge of Darkness" (3:29) Focuses entirely on composer Howard Shore and his approach to composing music for the film. Shore is the only on-camera interview participant
- Revisiting the "Edge of Darkness" Mini-Series (2:32) offers up some background information on the 1985 mini-series, also directed by Martin Campbell, from which the film was adapted. Interview participants include Campbell, King, and Gibson
- Adapting the Edge of Darkness Mini-Series (3:32) discusses the process of adapting the mini-series into a film including some false starts along the way. Interview participants include Campbell, King, Monahan, and Gibson
- Thomas Craven's War of Attrition (4:51) is not so much, as the title would suggest, solely about the character Gibson plays in the film as it is a reflections on the film’s dark themes and characters. Interview participants include Gibson, Monahan, Huston, King, Winstone, and Campbell
- Boston as a Character (2:57) focuses on how the specific setting of the film in Boston informed the characters as well as other aspects of the production. On-camera comments are provided by Campbell, Monahan, Gibson, and Winstone
- Director Profile Martin Campbell (3:21) Looks at his history, strengths, and work ethic, but mostly just features the interview participants telling viewers what is so great about Martin Campbell. This featurette contains the only reference to Winstone coming in at the 11th hour to replace Robert DeNiro in all of the supplements (although DeNiro's name is not mentoned). On-camera comments are provided by Winstone, King, Gibson, Huston, Novakovic, Meheux, and Monahan
- Edge of Your Seat (2:36) Is very promotional in nature and features most of the participants waxing eloquent about how the film is a unique throwback to the days of intellectual thrillers. On-camera praise for their own film is offered up by Meheux, Campbell, Gibson, Baird, Winstone, Novakovic, and King
- In the first scene, two police officer's discuss Thomas Craven and the case of his daughter's murder, having a difficult time trying to figure out why he would have any enemies that might be targeting him.
- In the second scene, we see how Jedburgh's services are retained by the corporate and political powers that be and get a little more background on why a minor character later in the finished film is referred to as "middle management".
- In the third scene, Craven talks to his (not on screen) deceased daughter in her empty bedroom
- The final scene is an alternate version of a scene from the film where Craven threatens Jack Bennett and lets him know that he is coming after him
