Over the edge

Where there should have been more of Mel Gibson (Signs) beating the crap out of people, there was father-daughter mushiness. From the start, Edge of Darkness struggles to find a story worth telling and an effective way to tell it. Is it about a man's quest to avenge the murder of his daughter as the trailers would have you think? Or did director Martin Campbell (Casino Royale) use all that setup to explore a person's psyche as he approaches the inevitable end?

Throw an overcomplicated conspiracy theory in the mix, and you get a movie trying to do too much and succeeding at too little.

Gibson plays Detective Thomas Craven who, in search of his daughter's murderer, uncovers a conspiracy involving a big bad corporation, the big bad government and big bad nuclear weapons. Craven is the honorable, hardened cop with a sensitive side shown through love for his daughter. 

Gibson does not do sensitive well, as witnessed in the monumental disaster What Women Want. In Edge of Darkness, his relationship with his daughter is unable to evoke emotion — their entire bond comes off as scripted and at odds with itself.

In the beginning, they are weirdly close with one another, as there is no mother figure in the picture. But it soon becomes apparent Craven has had nothing to do with his daughter's life for quite some time. It seems odd that they would be so close and his memories of her have not changed, even after they have grown apart.

When Gibson turns into an ultimate badass during the occasional action sequence, he brings back the Lethal Weapon vigor that shot him to stardom in the first place.

Tracking those two sides of Craven — parent and badass — provides a definite structure for the movie as a whole. Whenever Craven is mourning, having flashbacks  or dreams about his daughter or talking to hallucinations of her, the movie drags like a 20-ton boulder through quicksand.

When he goes all Martin Riggs with a nothing-to-lose mentality, you will jump out of your seat and glue your eyes to the screen. It really is a joy to watch Gibson go rampant and make his enemies look weak and pathetic, particularly in the final 20 minutes. The grand finale is surprisingly satisfying despite a lackluster buildup.

Unfortunately, sporadic switches between slow, talky sections and brisk violence are unsettling, making it hard for the viewer to relax and slip into a particular mindset. Sure, it's fun to watch some chick get smashed with a car out of nowhere, but it jolts you out of the drama of the moment.

In addition to that, a large majority of the narrative is used to explain the conspiracy, which never needed to be more complicated than bad guys selling weapons. Or even just bad guys. All we needed was someone for Craven to kill by the end.

When Craven is at his most violent, themes of mortality pop up, asking the viewer what he or she would do if there was nothing to lose and a drained hourglass. Complimenting this angle is a stellar, if underused, performance by Ray Winstone (Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull).

Winstone plays Jedburgh, a mysterious man hired to "clean up" the mess the  evil corporation created. Jedburgh has similar issues with mortality that Craven faces, though he stands on the opposite end of the morality spectrum as a hired gun instead of an honorable cop. He is witty but horribly jaded, much like The Comedian from Watchmen. The world is a joke to him.

Without missing a beat, Jedburgh proves to be the most dynamic and flat-out entertaining character in the movie. Having his eyes inspected by a doctor, he asks if there is a soul "in there." Yet he is nothing but a side-story. What a shame.

In the end, Edge of Darkness does not have enough guns and punches to overcome its pitfalls. The pace is unnerving, the entire father-daughter relationship is botched, and the plot is nothing more than a vehicle to observe Gibson and Winstone. Simply put, too many scenes drag out pointless details when there is still vengeance to be had.

diversions@umdbk.com

RATING: 2.5 stars out of 5