EDGE OF DARKNESS

It's a shame that Mel Gibson's talent has taken a backseat to his personal shenanigans, because in spite of his seven year absence from the big screen, he's still got it.  Nobody does tortured like Mel, and Edge of Darkness is the perfect vehicle for him.  It's action-packed, thought-provoking, and moving all at once.

 

Tom Craven (Gibson) is delighted to have his twenty-four year old daughter, Emma (Bojana Novakovic) returning home to live with him, but something seems amiss from the moment he picks her up at the airport.  For one thing, she's sick (like, throw-up-in-the-street-without-warning sick) and it seems as though she's not telling him something.  He makes it clear that she can talk to him, but she keeps to herself until she's too sick to ignore.  Then, just as they fling open the front door to head to the emergency room, Emma is gunned down and killed.  It's a truly shocking opening sequence simply grabs you buy the lapels and doesn't let go.

 

Because Tom Craven is a Boston police detective, everyone assumes that he was the true target.  Why would anyone want to kill a nerdy-smart girl like Emma?  She only worked as a research assistant in the field of nuclear science.  Wait, hold that thought.  Perhaps there's more to this story than meets the eye.  As both a detective and a victim, Tom is in an ideal position to sort out what happened: he's got the resources and some pretty compelling motivation.

 

As Tom slowly begins to piece together the details of his daughter's life, it becomes clear that her job was far riskier than anyone could have imagined.  Surely the Geiger Counter she used for work shouldn't be registering radiation in her bedroom...or when placed next to a lock of her hair.  As Tom gets closer and closer to the truth, he realizes that his own life is in jeopardy, but what is life really worth without the person he loved most?  There simply is no better broken-hearted badass than Mel Gibson, who expertly combines genuine feeling and vulnerability with a hardcore eye-for-an-eye worldview.  Edge of Darkness keeps the viewer asking questions, gunning for revenge, and sympathizing with Craven every step of the way.     

 

Deleted scenes serve as the disc's only noteworthy extra feature.