Here comes Mel Gibson’s return to the world of acting. Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) directs Edge of Darkness from a script by William Monahan and Andrew Bovell. The film is based on a six episode BBC series from 1985 which Campbell also directed. Also appearing in the film are Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Bojana Novakovic, Gbenga Akinnagbe, Shawn Roberts and Denis O’Hare.
Thomas Craven (Gibson) is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, twenty-four year old Emma (Novakovic) is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise, and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter’s secret life and her killing. His investigation leads him into a dangerous, looking glass world of corporate cover-ups, government collusion and murder – and to a shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh (Winstone), who has been sent in to clean up the evidence. Craven’s solitary search for answers about his daughter’s death transforms into an odyssey of emotional discovery and redemption.
Looks like it has a lot more potential than other recent Hollywood thrillers. Certainly Martin Campbell is doing great work right now, coming off the stellar Casino Royale. He also has a pretty good grasp on solid and believable action sequences, which looks to be exercised here a few times. Some of the accent work seems wonky, but perhaps it’ll work better in more than just snippets of dialogue.
There’s also something hilarious about a character played by Mel Gibson using a crucifixion metaphor while threatening someone…
Edge of Darkness will be released on January 29th, 2010 by Warner Bros.
