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Watching "Edge of Darkness" is a bit like trying on shoes that are a size too small. If you remove the laces, shed your socks and curl your toes, you can sort of squeeze into them but they don't feel quite right.
"Edge of Darkness" is a two-hour American movie based on a six-hour British miniseries of the same name.
- Starring: Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston.
- Rating: R for strong bloody violence and language.
- Web site: www.edge-of-darkness.warnerbros.com
Compressing those six parts into a single film means the fit is far from Cinderella perfect. The dots are connected but barely. Characters don't have the luxury of backgrounds and there's so much ground to cover that you may feel as if you missed 10 minutes when you were there from the get-go.
In his first starring role in more than seven years, Mel Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a longtime Boston homicide detective and doting single father to 24-year-old Emma (Bojana Novakovic). She comes home for a visit and hasn't even unpacked when she falls ill and is on the way out the front door with her dad when she is ambushed and shot to death.
Everyone naturally assumes the cop was the intended victim until Thomas begins to suspect that Emma was the target all along.
That draws him into the world of Northmoor -- Emma's employer that has something to do with nuclear stockpiles and hush-hush government contracts -- her co-worker and boyfriend (Shawn Roberts), their boss (Danny Huston), a mysterious government operative named Darius Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) and assorted politicians, lawyers and others.
Thomas isn't just on the edge of darkness before long but in its hazardous heart. The violence here is lightning-fast, bloody and generally arriving out of nowhere.
Mr. Gibson may have been missing from the screen since "The Singing Detective," "Signs" and "We Were Soldiers," but he hasn't lost a beat. His face is sun-beaten and furrowed and his action-hero stature is minimized by putting him alongside taller or beefier actors in many scenes, but Mr. Gibson is as riveting as ever.
He and Mr. Winstone have a nice, low-key rapport as they thrust and parry, trying to figure out who the other is and what he's capable of.
They share a running joke about how everything is illegal in Massachusetts and deliver crisp one-liners, such as "We live a while and then we die sooner than we planned" and "You had better decide whether you're hanging on the cross or bangin' in the nails."
But the movie, despite having much ground to cover, slows at times, and cathartic scenes at the end don't bring the satisfaction they should.
With Martin Campbell ("Casino Royale") directing and an adaptation co-written by the Oscar winner William Monahan ("The Departed"), the ingredients would seem to be there.
In the end, "Edge" plays too much like a highlight reel with lots of questions asked but not answered in full.
Movie editor Barbara Vancheri: bvancheri@post-gazette.com or 412-263-1632. Read her Mad About the Movies blog at post-gazette.com/movies.
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