LITE 96

Gibson plays Thomas Craven, a Boston homicide detective whose estranged daughter Emma is gunned down the very night she finally visits him. It's pretty obvious to the audience and Craven that she has a secret she needs to share with him. She just doesn't get the opportunity. Craven assumes he was the target until he delves into her private life and discovers what she did. A big nuclear energy corporation with a government contract is producing weapons and not just inexpensive fuel. It's a secret they're willing to kill for and do quite often.
Director Martin Campbell directed the six-hour British miniseries version of Edge of Darkness. All this talk works on British TV way better than it does in an American feature film.
One of Craven's many nemesis is a shady character known as Jedburgh played by British heavy Ray Winstone whose accent here is so heavy and he talks so softly that it might have been a good idea to provide subtitles for his three major scenes with Gibson. Danny Huston plays the really sleazy head of the nuclear facility and we can't wait until he gets what he deserves. The same is true of a really corrupt senator.
Gibson hasn't had a starring role since 2002's Signs in which he was also dead serious but that was a crackerjack screenplay filled with suspense and tension. You can't fault his acting in Edge of Darkness. He plays a man with no reason to live and every reason to bring others down with him and he plays it well but there is just too much political posturing to get through.
It seems as if Gibson wants to be Gene Hackman who did so many of these kinds of characters.
Campbell also uses a little ghost to help us see what is going on in Craven's mind. I prefer the witty jokester Mel Gibson and the action star but maybe that's just me. At least its not a fluffy romantic comedy. That said, there is no love interest in Edge of Darkness for him and we can thank the Brits for that one.