EDGE OF DARKNESS - Curiously flat

EDGE OF DARKNESS is a curiously anemic political thriller starring Mel Gibson as a straightlaced cop whose daughter is assassinated by her employer - a shadowy military defense contractor. While the police are distracted with the idea that the killer was really after the cop, the father begins his own investigation that takes him into the upper reaches of government and business. The marketing campaign for this film led me to believe that the film would be akin to the recent Liam Neeson vehicle TAKEN - in which a vengeful father murdered and tortured his way through Paris. But I was pleasantly surprised to find that EDGE OF DARKNESS is a far quieter, more talkative film. Indeed, barring one or two scenes, it is hardly an action movie at all. Rather, the movie takes the form of a series of conversations. Mel Gibson is actually rather sympathetic and credible as the grieving father and his scenes opposite Ray Winstone, who plays a government fixer, are marvelous to watch. Winstone is more modulated than is typical, and keeps us guessing as to his true motives. But I was rather disappointed to see Danny Huston roll out the same oleaginous sinister performance as the corporate boss. I was also disappointed by the technical quality of the film, despite being shot by the team behind CASINO ROYALE, and by the complete lack of tension. Indeed, the film was so baggy that after an hour I was tempted to leave. The mechanics of the plot - the secret everyone is trying to hide - is very mono-dimensional and obvious. There is no real attempt to work out the ramifications of the secret either politically or in the media. Indeed, despite a rather impressive corporate HQ, the movie has a rather parochial air (all the more because only Gibson attempts a Boston accent.) This extends to one of the most flat and brushed aside endings to a thriller I've seen in a while. So, all in all, despite a rather sympathetic performance from Gibson, this is ultimately a rather frustrating film.

EDGE OF DARKNESS is on release in the UK, the US, Hong Kong, the Netherlands, Singapore, Brazil and Canada. It opens next weekend in Australia, Denmark, New Zealand, Finland and Sweden. It opens later in February in Belgium, Slovenia, France, the Czech Republic, Greece, Norway, Romania and South Korea. It opens on March 4th in Argentina and Germany; on March 12th in Taiwan and on April 2nd in Estonia.

THE PROPOSAL - over-styled, under-powered rom-com

Anne Fletcher, of 27 DRESSES and STEP UP fame, delivers a high-concept but low-on-laughs "romantic comedy". The big concept takes a career-bitch (Sandra Bullock) who fakes an engagement to her younger executive assistant (Ryan Reynolds). She wants to get a visa to the US; he wants to be promoted to editor. Over a weekend in Alaska to visit his parents they are meant to fall in love with each other. Problem is, there is zero chemistry between the two. It just looks like a middle-aged woman, with too much Botox and far too over-styled, macking onto a much younger guy. I didn't buy the whole "I'm a tortured rich-kid" dynamic with the guy. I didn't buy the whole "I'm a power-bitch because my parents died" excuse for the woman. And I really didn't buy the wannabe schmaltzy ending. For falling-in-love over a family country-house weekend, check out the far superior in DAN IN REAL LIFE. And for a more credible and affecting immigration set-up, check out the old Andie McDowell/Depardieu classic, GREEN CARD.

THE PROPOSAL is on release in the UK, the US, the Netherlands, Belgium, Australia, Georgia, Hungary, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kuwait, New Zealand, Russia, Lithuania, Mexico, Poland, Turkey, Egypt, Sweden, Greece, Bulgaria, Argentina, Portugal, Ukraine, Brazil, Spain and Estonia. It opens later in July in Iceland and Germany. It opens in August in Malaysia, Finland, Denmark, Norway, Singapore and the Czech Republic. It opens in September in Italy, Hong Kong and France. It opens in Japan on October 16th.

CHANGELING - plays like a highly polished TV melodrama

I just don't see what's so amazing about the much-hyped new Clint Eastwood flick, CHANGELING. Sure, it's a handsomely designed period piece set in 1920s LA. Sure, Clint Eastwood knows how to light and frame a shot. Sure, Angelina Jolie is convincing as the destraught mother of an abducted child. But frankly, this movie played like one of those afternoon tele-dramas - all mawkish score and glycerine tears. The first hour is dull. Jolie plays Christine Collins as meek and mild - a veritable weeping Madonna. She cries when her son goes missing. She cries when the LAPD - keen for some good publicity - foist another kid on her - forcing her to accept him as her lost son. "He's not my son!" "He's not my son!" The only punctuation: John Malkovich with another irritatingly mannered performance as a political activist and Jeffrey Donovan as a caricatured corrupt cop.

After an hour of this banal suffering we are introduced to the story of what really happened to Walter Collins. Turns out he was abducted by a serial killer. We get two compelling performances from the relative unknowns in the cast. Jonathan Butler Harner is fantastic as the killer, Gordon Northcott - but even he is upstaged by a kid called Eddie Alderson who plays Northcott's nephew and forced accomplice. It's a bravura performance - the real bravura performance of the film - and it's a shame it's getting overlooked in all the hype about Jolie.

It may sound facetious but the problem with CHANGELING is the story. It's too much and not enough at the same time. Even though it IS a true story, it still feels absurd and hammy. I mean, I'm perfectly willing to believe in a venal LAPD, but having policeman be so damn stupid just brings me out of the movie. I was begging for the screenwriter to move away from the real history and add some kind of gray areas to the characterisation because these slimeballs had all the depth of the Wicked Stepmother. It's also too much insofar as it goes on and on and on. The movie has more endings that LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING! Christine Collins wins her tribunal against the LAPD! Then the serial killer is arrested! And there's still a good half hour to go. Enough already! I get that she is condemned to a life without closure - that she chooses that life - and that, to use Eastwood's rather heavy-handed imagery, she will always be imprisoned by the search for her son.

At the same time, the story just isn't enough. Because of all the hype, we all know what the story is when we go into the cinema. Some film-makers are still able to create tension even when we know the outcome. A classic example is Kevin MacDonald's documentary ONE DAY IN SEPTEMBER, where I was on the edge of my seat during the rescue attempts even though I knew the tragic ending of the Munich Olympics hostage crisis. CHANGELING doesn't attempt to create an air of mystery or tension. Eastwood isn't playing it for the Sommersby moment - is the kid really her son or not? No. He's really interested in how ordinary people get trampled by corrupt institutions. And if that's your game - you'd do far better to check out LA CONFIDENTIAL or CHINATOWN, true stories or not.

CHANGELING played Cannes 2008 and is currently on release in the US, Belgium, France, Switzerland, Italy, the UK, Ireland, Greece, Israel and the Netherlands. It opens on December 19th in Spain and on January 8th in the Czech Republic, Hong KOng, Finland, Iceland and Sweden. It opens on January 15th in Singapore, Denmark and Estonia and on January 22nd in Argentina, Chile and Germany. It opens on January 30th in Norway and Turkey; on February 6th in Brazil and Poland. It opens on January 12th in Hungary and on February 21st in Japan.