Even before Edge of Darkness gets going, Mel Gibson looks ready for a fight. There was always something manic in his smile, but at least he used to smile; now his eyes look wary, his expression truculent, his face frozen in Grim Avenger mode. Maybe it’s the personal problems he’s had in the past few years – the film marks his first starring role since Signs in 2002 – but Mel, at 54, comes across like a grumpy old man. And that’s before his daughter gets gunned down by unknown assailants on her first day home, with our hero standing right beside her.
For a while, Mel wonders if he might’ve been the target – he’s a cop, and must’ve made enemies – but the film never seriously entertains that possibility. Even if the daughter weren’t in trouble, which she clearly was (she’s obviously unwell, and about to confess something just before being killed), it doesn’t take long for Edge of Darkness to reveal the reasons behind her murder. You could leave halfway through and still know almost everything – that she unearthed something dodgy in her job, at a nuclear-research facility, and fell victim to a combination of creepy head of security Danny Huston, faceless apparatchik Denis O’Hare and eccentric enforcer Ray Winstone.
In fact the whole conspiracy-thriller aspect is generic, a case of evil men in suits and a parade of supporting characters whose only function is to supply another piece of the puzzle. Once they’ve told Mel enough to move the plot forward, they’re disposed of, having outlived their usefulness. Edge of Darkness is the second recent film to be based on a BBC mini-series (the first was State of Play), and maybe it’s not such a great idea to adapt a two-hour film from a five-hour series: everything seems rushed and one-dimensional, never having time to do more than skim the surface. After the effective opening shot – bodies bubbling up to the surface of a lake in the moonlight – there’s little in the way of style or ambience. Even the scenes between Gibson and Winstone, which aren’t strictly plot-related – more a chance for two old pros to spar amusingly – feel constrained; Winstone sips red wine, offers a “Bonne chance” and says, apropos of nothing much, “Sometimes I feel like Diogenes”. Isn’t he a riot? Yes, very clever, let’s move on.
Edge of Darkness is so formulaic you wonder why they bothered – but the reason is simple, and it answers to the name of Mel Gibson. As the plot gathers steam, you can almost feel Gibson warming to his subject, the themes of Revenge and Sacrifice he’s been peddling for years now. Mel the Grump becomes Mel the Punisher, meting out righteous justice (“Deep down, you know you deserve this”) – then Mel the Martyr, taking revenge in the noblest way possible.
Does Mel Gibson have a Jesus complex? It’s not for us to say – but his films have always worked best when they suggest he’s a little bit nuts, and Edge of Darkness gets a lot more interesting whenever Mel talks to his (invisible) dead daughter – “Sorry you had to see that, honey,” he apologises after a brutal bit of violence – or shoves contaminated milk down Huston’s throat in the loopy climax. Trouble is, Gibson nowadays seems more interested in playing a certain kind of character than starring in a solid movie. Some bits, like the scene between Mel and a young reporter, are scarily bad (when did Hollywood get so sloppy?), and an entire sequence turns out to be irrelevant to the plot, except in allowing our hero to ‘punish’ Huston for having asked “what does it feel like” to lose a daughter. Edge of Darkness tries to compress a five-hour mini-series while also indulging Mel Gibson’s need to portray the Wrath of God in human form. Something’s got to give.
Still, it’s good to have Mel back after all these years. He’s grey and wrinkly (even wears reading glasses), and he clearly has all kinds of Issues – but better his tormented megalomania, even in a sub-standard vehicle like Edge of Darkness, than the bland showbiz complacency of Hoffman or De Niro. At one point, our hero spells out his gruff, no-nonsense credo: Go to work every day, always do your best for your family, always speak your mind, and never take anything from the bad guys. Not many actors can be bona fide movie stars yet also speak that line and sound like they believe every word. Mel Gibson can.
