Movie Review: Edge of Darkness

Edge of Darkness (2010)

Directed by Martin Campbell 

Written by William Monahan, Andrew Bovell 

Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston

Release Date January 29th, 2010

Published January 29th, 2010 

No one is likely to forget Mel Gibson's off-screen issues anytime soon, nor should they, he's awful. From his disturbing 'Passion' to his arrest and subsequent bashing of the Jewish people, Mel Gibson's private life has become very public and it affects everything the public perceives about him. All of this is part of what makes his performance in the thriller Edge of Darkness so remarkable.

Less than 10 to 15 minutes into what you are expecting to be a rather generic thriller, based on the somewhat innocuous title and vacuous TV campaign, Mel Gibson and director Martin Campbell make you forget, if only briefly, about Mel Gibson's character issues, focus on his movie character and the snaky, violent plot in front of him.

In Edge of Darkness Mel Gibson is Boston police detective Tommy Craven. He has just welcomed home his only child, Emma (Bojana Novakovic) and brought her home. The welcome is short-lived as Emma falls ill and Tommy rushes her to the hospital. That was the plan anyway, just as Craven opens the door to his home a man calls out his name and a shotgun blast blows Emma right back through the doorway.

The violence in this scene is quick and merciless and sets the tone for the rest of the picture. Naturally, Tommy will conduct his own investigation of his daughter's murder. From here you may expect Edge of Darkness to become predictable and fall into typical thriller beats. It does not, in fact Gibson and Director Campbell forcefully make moves in this plot to avoid the typical and drive toward a narrative filled with surprise and suspense.

Lost in all of Mel Gibson's off-screen issues is the fact that he has always been exceptionally talented. His intensity, his physicality, his self effacing humor have all played a role in defining him as an actor capable of moving audiences in many different ways. He makes use of all of his gifts in Edge of Darkness and crafts his best performance since Braveheart.

Director Martin Campbell is a rising star. He was the director who re-launched the Bond series with the adrenalin fueled Casino Royale. Campbell has always been a strong action director but in Edge of Darkness he takes great care to deliver a directorial style that is free of the typical action beats and gets right to point of each scene.

There is very little wasted effort in Edge of Darkness. Take a scene where Craven is kidnapped. We've been here before, we know what to expect. All of sudden the scene is over and we are back into the plot. No talking killer, very little dialogue at all. It's a minor tweak of what is expected but it seems any departure from the expected can be a welcome change in this day and age.

Edge of Darkness does not reinvent the thriller, it's just made better. Better performances, better direction and most importantly, better Mel Gibson. After wandering off the path of stardom with his unfortunate behavior, Mel Gibson is poised for a strong career third act. Let's hope that his off-screen stuff is behind him and more films with the quality and excitement of Edge of Darkness are ahead.

Movie Review Lantana

Lantana (2002) 

Directed by Ray Lawrence

Written by Andrew Bovell 

Starring Anthony LaPaglia, Barbara Hershey, Kerry Armstrong, Russell Dykstra

Release Date March 8th, 2002 

Published May 21st, 2002 

For those of you with no knowledge of Australian shrubbery, and unwillingness to grab a dictionary, the title of the film Lantana will be a complete mystery. Even watching the film I had no idea what lantana is. I though it was going to be a character’s name. I come to find out it is a form of shrub native to Australia that is a prickly mass, difficult to navigate, with a foul odor, but also containing small, beautiful flowers. The title now makes sense as this sticky, foul, yet beautiful plant is a perfect metaphor for the relationships portrayed in the film Lantana.

Anthony LaPaglia stars as Detective Leon Zat. Leon is married, though not quite happily, to Sonja (Kerry Armstrong) who is oblivious at first to her marital problems. The audience is clued in quickly as we are introduced to Leon's one-night stand Jane (Rachel Blake). Leon and Jane met at a dance class Leon was taking with his wife that was supposed to get them to be closer. Seeing that the dance classes aren't working, Sonja begins seeing a psychiatrist named Valerie played by Barbara Hershey. Valerie is a good psychiatrist but still has problems with her own marriage to John (Geoffrey Rush). It seems that another client of Valerie's, a gay man who is carrying on an affair with a married man, has got Valerie thinking her own husband may be the married man in question.

Also on the periphery of this story are Jane's neighbors Nik and Paula (Vince Colosimo and Daniella Fanucci) and Jane's ex-husband Pete. Each of those smaller roles become more pivotal after the murder of one of the lead characters.

Lantana at this point could have become a typical suspense genre police procedural with LaPaglia's detective becoming some rogue cop on the edge of the law. Director Ray Lawrence however refuses to rollover into genre convention. Instead, the murder is used to deepen the emotional elements of the interaction between the remaining characters.

Anthony LaPaglia has never been better. Sure he has played a cop a thousand times but this time it's not about being a cop, it's about dialogue and characterization. LaPaglia shines in a role that if “Hollywoodized,” would meltdown into dull melodrama.

Adapted from the stage play Speaking in Tongues by Andrew Bovell, Lantana is a powerful meditation on the complexities of marriage and all other relationships for that matter. The film is about the ridiculous games we play with people trying to show them our best face. Sometimes you lie, sometimes you tell half the truth or maybe you just tell someone what you think they want to here in order to avoid confrontation. These little games we've all played at one time are what Lantana lays bare in a way that is hard to watch at times.

The film isn't perfect, it's pacing is glacial and the title while properly metaphorical, is never explained, which I found distracting.

The overall intent of the film is very clear and its insight on relationships makes clear what’s wrong with a very similar film, Ed Burns's Sidewalks of New York. Sidewalks, with it's superficial dialogue and shallow characters, is the antithesis of Lantana. Sadly, Sidewalks is also the “Hollywoodized” version of Lantana.