No matter what you think of “Mad” Mel Gibson’s exploits as an alcoholic bigot and wacko director, he remains an actor to be reckoned with in the rousing revenge melodrama “Edge of Darkness,” his first starring role in eight years.
Bringing a new gravitas to a form-fitting role as a Boston police detective investigating his whistle-blower daughter’s death, Gibson scores a bull’s-eye — actually, a great many of them — in the film’s unusually cathartic climax.
But that’s getting ahead of what amounts to a smart cross between “Silkwood” and any number of earlier Gibson revenge movies.
Screenwriters William Monahan (“The Departed”) and Andrew Bovell have cleverly adapted a much-respected 25-year-old British TV miniseries of the same name — which was, like this feature, directed with panache by Martin Campbell (“Casino Royale”).
Gibson is excellent as Martin Craven, a devoted dad who watches in horror as his adult daughter (Bojana Novakovic) is blown away on the front steps of their home.
Everyone assumes that the assassin, who escapes, was gunning for Martin.
Except for Martin, who alone knows that his daughter was seriously ill — and suspects her death is somehow connected with her internship at a shadowy nuclear research facility in a scenic valley in the Berkshires.
Martin gradually learns the facility may be involved in the manufacture of dirty bombs for use by foreign governments.
Along the way, Martin has memorable encounters with the facility’s unctuous CEO (Danny Huston), his daughter’s terrified boyfriend (Shawn Roberts), and, in an amazingly prescient touch, a Republican Massachusetts senator (Damian Young, played to icy perfection).
Gibson’s best scenes are with Ray Winstone, who reportedly replaced Robert De Niro after a day of shooting.
Winstone brings a rueful humor to his juicy role as Jedburgh, an enigmatic, world-weary, chardonnay-sipping “fixer” who is brought in to clean up the “mess” by a mysterious, double-talking government “consultant” (Denis O’Hare).
Campbell and his cinematographer, Phil Meheux, create a pervasive sense of dread, with danger lurking around every corner of Boston and its environs — including a rest stop on the Mass. Pike.
My main problem with the movie is a few schmaltzy touches with the daughter, including the last scene, which appear to have been added to soften the picture’s impact after test screening.
Nevertheless, this remains a tough-minded thriller that treats corporations and governments with the same sort of paranoia as ’70s classics like “The Parallax View.”
Gibson has always fit well into this worldview.
He also excels at grieving scenes and indulges his predilection for martyrdom, especially in a scene where he is kidnapped and strapped to a gurney.
Perhaps the best compliment I can pay to his work in “Edge of Darkness” is that I wouldn’t particularly want to see this movie with grumpy Harrison Ford starring instead.
Welcome back, Mel.