Mel
Gibson's
name
has
been
in
the
news
for
problems
relating
to
his
personal
life
in
the
recent
past.
But
the
We
Were
Soldiers
returns
to
the
big
screen
with
Edge
of
Darkness.
The
movie
is
screen
adaptation
of
a
BBC
1985
TV
Series
of
the
same
title.
The
TV
series
was
political
thriller
with
a
nuclear
theme,
reflecting
the
late-Cold
War
paranoia
of
the
Ronald
Reagan
and
Margaret
Thatcher.
The
Martin
Campbell
directed
movie
is
more
top
to
do
with
post
9/11
world.
Edge
of
Darkness
is
the
story
of
a
homicide
detective
Thomas
Craven
(Mel
Gibson).
After
only
about
five
minutes
of
mourning
for
his
dead
child
Thomas
gets
into
the
business
of
investigating
who
killed
his
activist
daughter
Emma
Craven
(Bojana
Novakovic).
He
runs
through
through
the
list
of
his
daughter
Emma's
contacts
from
her
cellphone,
and
systematically
contacting
them,
one
by
one
by
one.
Soon
he
hits
upon
conspiracy
and
cover
up
involving
Emma's
employer
Bennett
(Danny
Huston)
and
a
U.S.
senator
(Damian
Young)
Craven
goes
after
each
of
them
with
single-minded
focus
punching,
questioning,
shooting,
threatening,
bashing
doing
every
possible
thing
in
his
quest
for
justice.
Many
a
times
Craven
is
seen
crossing
the
life
of
a
good
cop.
On
the
way
he
encounters
a
mysterious
man
named
Matt
Jedburgh
(Ray
Winstone),
who
seems
to
know
a
little
about
everything.
Jedburgh
is
a
CIA
man
who
has
been
sent
to
cover
up
the
entire
murder
a
will
keep
you
guessing
his
character's
allegiance
until
the
very
end.
The
monotonous
script
has
too
may
flaws
and
Campbell
does
little
to
help
it's
cause.
Campbell"s
direction
only
really
shines
in
the
action
sequences
but
Edge
of
Darkness
is
no
We
Were
Soldiers
or
Patriot.
Mel
Gibson
shines
in
the
movie
along
with
Ray
Winstone
while
others
seems
to
be
sleep
walking
in
the
entire
script.20
minutes
into
the
movie
the
murder
mystery
seems
to
be
solved
Campbell
gives
us
90
more
minutes
of
movie.
Edge
of
Darkness
could
have
better
been
titled
as
Mel
Gibson
Returns
as
there
is
nothing
more
in
the
movie
and
his
performance
is
the
showcase.
The
movie
seems
wayward
quite
surprising
coming
from
the
director
of
Casino
Royale.
The
movie
miserably
fails
because
it
tries
to
merge
mystery
with
vengeance
and
fails
in
both.
Although
the
movie
seems
ok
in
bits
and
pieces
it
is
difficult
to
stand
up
and
applaud
Edge
of
Darkness.
Story first published: Friday, January 29, 2010, 11:47 [IST]