Movie Review: Edge of Darkness

It's been eight years since we've seen Mel Gibson on the silver screen. In that time he's been busy. He made controversy, and money, with his personal Sistine Chapel, "The Passion of the Christ." He confirmed peoples' worst suspicions with a drunken anti-Semitic rant while being arrested for DUI. He vehemently defended his conservative brand of Catholicism, only to father a love child with a Russian singer and leave his wife and seven children.

Know what? This would make a good movie.

Unfortunately for him, the vehicle he chose as a comeback, "Edge of Darkness," opening Friday January 29, isn't nearly as interesting as his personal life.

Gibson plays a tough Boston cop with a beloved daughter, Emma (played by the extravagantly named Bojana Novakovic). She's graduated from MIT and landed a job at a high security firm. She arrives on his doorstep violently ill and clearly troubled. Before she can unburden her soul to him, wouldn't you know it, someone kills her.

Gibson's Tom Craven sets out to find who killed his little girl, leaving a trail of mangled bodies behind him. His investigation leads him to a conspiracy that penetrates the very halls of power in DC.

I didn't much care for this film because it made me feel old.

Let me explain.

I was sitting by myself, but had my wonderful husband been with me, I would have been pestering him with grandma-like questions. "Who's that guy?" "What's he mean?" "Why'd he do that?" and "What happened to that other guy?"

I'm too young to be a grandma. Hollywood, please make films that make sense.

The plot jumped around like a washing machine with a bowling ball inside. Plot threads were abandoned, never to be seen again. Characters came and went without much explanation. The washing machine just kept spinning.

The producers, for reasons that I'm sure seemed logical at the time, hired three similar actors to play three bad guys. Or at least I think that's what happened. I was never sure who was on screen. Note to my readers: The Senator is the dude with the big ears. I think.

I never really quite got the gist of the conspiracy, either. Maybe I need someone to explain it to me. Loudly. With charts.

Maybe that all doesn't matter so much. Gibson, for his part, revived his tough-guy-on-the-brink role. No one does it quite like our Mel. His character's heart was breaking and the only way he could find to express his feelings was by fist or bullet. On screen, at least, Gibson's tough guy never strays from due north on the moral compass.

There's a reason why Mel Gibson spent two decades on the top of Hollywood's A-list. He's still gripping after all these years.

He's still violent too. If you like the splatter of a good head shot or the shock of a sudden body slam with a car, this is the film for you. It's quick and intense and has its satisfying moments.

Just send me a note explaining what happened when you get home, would ya?