By Rama Gaind
Edge of Darkness
Screening at Greater Union, Manuka
In Edge of Darkness, director Martin Campbell has delivered a thriller which combines energy that’s oddly tinged with sadness.
Playing a cop again with issues, Mel Gibson is impressive as a grieving father who is obsessed with finding his daughter’s killer.
He plays the role of veteran homicide detective Tom Craven who is happy to have his daughter Emma (Bojana Novakovic) home in Boston for the weekend. She appears tired and is somewhat aloof, but before he can find out about her problems she is gunned down. Initially everyone assumes that the hit was mean for him.
However, Tom soon investigates another reason behind her death.
Emma had worked for a private firm with shady government contracts and finds a Geiger counter and handgun among her belongings.
The screenplay adaptation by Oscar-winner William Monahan and Andrew Bovell, has political intrigue, appealing characters and corporate corruption.
Tightly condensing a 1980s BBC mini-series into a hard-hitting, winning conspiracy thriller, Campbell (Casino Royale, Green Lantern) deserves to be congratulated for making a movie about revenge with intelligence, not senseless bloodshed.
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