Live Life Team
Mel Gibson returns to the front of the camera and reclaims his action-hero status in the drama-thriller “Edge of Darkness”. Not since 2002’s “Signs” has Gibson starred in a movie, but that doesn’t mean the public hasn’t seen – or heard – from him. He’s had his share of bad press, so the question to ask is whether Gibson has lost his audience.
Playing a Boston homicide investigator, Gibson must now solve the death of his daughter, a victim of corporate and government evil. If the plot is familiar, you are probably remembering the 1985 British miniseries directed by Martin Campbell; twenty-five years later, Campbell and screenwriters William Monahan and Andrew Bovell move the story to America but little else has changed. Despite the flat story, Gibson shows he still has the acting chops and his interactions Ray Winstone who plays the shadowy Jedburgh are the movie’s high points.
Peter Travers, critic from “The Rolling Stone” welcomes Gibson’s return but admits the movie is “a bloodletting B-movie feast”. Roger Ebert thinks that Gibson “remains a likable man with a natural screen presence” but thinks that the film is “fast-food action”.
Perhaps Gibson has lost some of his fans but this movie will still appeal to those who want to enjoy computer generated graphics and the usual thriller noise. This is not the movie to regain his stardom but it will help bring him back from the edge of darkness.
