"Edge Of Darkness"

First let me say I know this movie came out in January. I am slow, and have been busy.

I understand that Mel Gibson has created a PR nightmare for himself as of late. The anti-Semitic, and the DUII arrest just to name a few incidents. The phrase "Sugar tits" will forever be my favorite drunken outburst. With all of the Mel's baggage of late I have to say I was a little worried about this film.

Now, I also must say that I am a huge Mel Gibson fan, so forgive the bias that is coming. That said, here goes nothing:

Mel plays Thomas Craven a veteran Boston detective. I am a fan of the Boston accent, and I have to say Gibson does a superb job at pulling it off. A side note: This film was written by William Monahan who also wrote "The Departed", and "Body Of Lies". One viewing of "The Departed" and you should fully understand my love for the Boston accent...

Without giving away too much of the plot... Craven's only daughter Emma (played by Bojana Novakovic) comes home to visit and gets gunned down on the front steps of her fathers house and dies in his arms. This was in all the previews so no spoiler alert needed.

Past this I don't want to say much other than Craven becomes consumed with getting to the truth on how, and why his daughter is murdered.

What I loved about this film is you can actually feel Mel (Craven) drift further and further into the "darkness" that we all have inside us. A once proud decorated police officer is now willing to blurr the lines of what is right and wrong all to get to the bottom of a very personal tragedy.

As the film goes on Craven starts to uncover slowly what happened. With the gradual exposure of fact so goes Craven deeper into the vengeful, vigilante justice that I found troubling yet exactly what I would do given the situation if it were me.

This film is clever, and full of plot twists and turns. I even jumped several times. I am a pretty good guess as to the what happens next in thrillers. This film kept me guessing the entire time.

I think my favorite part of this film besides Gibsons gut wrenching performance was the Witty banter and exchange(s) between Jedburgh and Craven (Ray Winstone) is excellent.

All in all, if you can get past the off screen personal issues of Gibson this is a great film. Gibson is back, and better than ever.