Edge Of Darkness

I went into Edge of Darkness completely blind. As far as I knew, the film was about Mel Gibson and something something something. The extent of my knowledge about the film was that there was a massive ass poster of it hanging outside the theatre. I was surprised. This was a great movie. It's not a film I'd watch again, but it was a great film. And will people be shitting out I Love Edge of Darkness t-shirts in five years? Probably not, but I don't give a shit. I enjoyed it while I was there. Every single part of it. When I go to the theatre, I consider it a commitment. I am committing a portion of my time to a film, and I am committed to its plot, its characters, and its style, no matter how shitty. If this film was a girlfriend, it'd be a better girlfriend than The Tooth Fairy. Like three times the girlfriend, and then four more times on top of those three times. With two more times on top of that.

Of course, as everyone knows, the real star of the show was Mel Gibson's hypnotizing forehead. I found myself sitting through large portions of the film just staring at the cracks and crevices in his broken skull, tracing it over and over again, invisible lines in the air. If the film was just about his forehead, I would've been more than impressed. But Mel Gibson had to go and give a really super good performance on top of that, as did everyone else. Some very tops pro shit as far as acting goes. Believable characters with interesting motivations. Occasional moments of weakness in the heart of the film's action, but I was far too entranced in the blood and the milk to care.

At its heart, Edge of Darkness is a film about who hates Massachusetts the most. The film blatantly shit talks the state over and over, and I've been more than convinced never to visit there. The movie follows Mel Gibson, a cop driven to the edge after his daughter is murdered. His pals at the office think it was some con trying to kill Gibson, but Gibson knows best. His irradiated and thoroughly fucked and dead daughter was being targeted by someone. Mel Gibson will shit on them. What follows is not your standard cop's revenge film. It doesn't exactly blur the lines or fly to all new heights, but it doesn't ride the easy train either. It's not a junk pile of cliches. It sidesteps them carefully, but barely. Just enough to make Edge of Darkness its own film. In between the alcoholic assassin, Bill Ferrell, and a harem of paranoid young adults, you're really never sure what's going on until the end. It kept me guessing, running over elements again and again in my schizophrenic head. Maybe I'm just dumb. I mean, it wasn't the most complicated plot in the world, but they did a great job of keeping it on track. There aren't a whole lot of loose ends. Instead, everything twists together like a wicker basket. And a really pretty cat sleeps in the wicker basket, on a big fluffy pillow. The cat's name is Mel Gibson.

The film is paced the same way it's shot. Steady. Despite the dozens of twists, turns, and absolutely butt fuckingly shocking murder scenes, it has a very careful and deliberate shooting style. It allows you to take in the film's environments, characters, and motivations. It strikes a careful balancing act between the grief of mortified Cop-Dad, and the conspiracy theory it builds up to. It's never really about one or the other. It delves into both, and on multiple occasions leaves you numb with what it has to say. And then you're shocked back into the story by a constantly increasing level of violence. This film does its best not to fuck around. There's no good guy/bad guy "I'm going to hold you up and explain my shit" shit. Instead, people shoot each other and use attack-milk. No hesitation. Just death. It's awesome. It's a breath of fresh air.

Ultimately, I think I got a lot more out of Edge of Darkness than most people will. I really enjoyed it. I love Mel Gibson and his crazy gingerale guzzling on screen persona. This film has the best use of on-screen movie-milk since Beyond Re-Animator, and it's things like that which make it so awesome to watch. The soundtrack slowly builds from a melancholy series of arrangements to a trumpeting war march. That's just one example of the way the film builds. It never gets ahead of itself, and it's never trapped in its past. It moves along like a chuga-chuga-choo-choo, and the audience moves with it. It's a thriller that thrilled me. It was action packed and it was sad, and instead of trying to jump between those two things, it merges them into one cohesive tight rope, and it walks it with grace. At first I was like "Fuck yeah," and then I was like "Fuck yeah," and then it kept going and I kept swearing, and it was just phenomenal.

There are occasional moments of overacting, and some strange little quips with the characters that kind of bothered me. There were some scenes that were just too over the top. They tried very hard to give the character's character in the way they dressed and acted. I mean, that's a good thing, but to get across that a character is an alcoholic, he doesn't have to have a drink on him at all times. This film is a gigantic open sea of awesome rainbow fish and sweet sharks. There's an occasional floundering trout, but forget them. They get swallowed by whales of enjoyment. I'm aware of what other people think about this movie. I wholeheartedly disagree.