Movies
Weekend Box Office
Film Awards & Top 10s By Year
All-Time High Scores
All-Time Low Scores
Best / Worst of the Decade
Wide Releases
Now In Theaters
49
2012
53
Alice in Wonderland
41
Alvin and the Chipmunks: The Squeakquel
84
Avatar![]()
69
Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call New Orleans
53
Blind Side
53
Book of Eli, The
31
Bounty Hunter, The
43
Brooklyn's Finest
55
Christmas Carol, A
31
Cop Out
55
Crazies, The
57
Daybreakers
43
Dear John
64
Diary of a Wimpy Kid
27
Did You Hear About the Morgans?
55
Edge of Darkness
45
Extraordinary Measures
83
Fantastic Mr. Fox![]()
42
From Paris with Love
61
Green Zone
65
Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus, The
74
Invictus
57
It's Complicated
34
Law Abiding Citizen
33
Leap Year
32
Legion
42
Lovely Bones, The
54
Men Who Stare At Goats, The
34
Ninja Assassin
19
Old Dogs
39
Our Family Wedding
47
Percy Jackson & The Olympians: The Lightning Thief
39
Planet 51
79
Precious: Based on the Novel by Sapphire
73
Princess & the Frog, The
69
Redbelt
40
Remember Me
29
Repo Men
64
Road, The
57
Sherlock Holmes
47
She's Out of My League
63
Shutter Island
27
Spy Next Door, The
36
Tooth Fairy
44
Twilight Saga: New Moon, The
83
Up in the Air![]()
34
Valentine's Day
25
When in Rome
71
Where the Wild Things Are
43
Wolfman, The
63
Youth in Revolt
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Limited Releases
Now In Theaters
67
3 Idiots
47
44 Inch Chest
82
Ajami![]()
71
American Radical: The Trials of Norman Finkelstein
73
Amreeka
75
Art of the Steal, The
43
Barefoot to Timbuktu
19
Bitch Slap
49
Blood Done Sign My Name
24
Boondock Saints II: All Saints Day, The
76
Broken Embraces
52
Celine: Through the Eyes of the World
67
Children of Invention
65
City Island
64
Cloud 9
65
Coco Before Chanel
84
Cove, The![]()
83
Crazy Heart![]()
21
Crazy on the Outside
51
Creation
xx
Daddy Long Legs
81
Damned United, The![]()
57
Defendor
61
Delta
68
Departures
64
District 13: Ultimatum
72
Easier with Practice
85
Education, An![]()
61
Exploding Girl, The
70
Eyes Wide Open
24
Falling Awake
81
Fish Tank![]()
56
For My Father
52
Formosa Betrayed
xx
From Mexico with Love
43
Frozen
xx
Ghost Town
77
Ghost Writer, The
69
Girl on the Train, The
73
Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The
47
Good Guy, The
78
Greenberg
35
Happy Tears
68
Harlan: In the Shadow of Jew Suess
20
Harlem Aria
xx
Killing Jar, The
52
Killing Kasztner
xx
Kimjongilia
41
Last New Yorker, The
76
Last Station, The
47
Little Traitor, The
51
Loss of a Teardrop Diamond, The
71
Lourdes
73
Me and Orson Welles
77
Messenger, The
80
Mid-August Lunch
57
Missing Person, The
76
Most Dangerous Man in America: Daniel Ellsberg and the Pentagon Papers, The
79
Mother
50
My Name is Khan
88
Neil Young Trunk Show![]()
49
Nine
67
North Face
64
October Country
67
Off and Running
52
Paranoids, The
40
Phyllis and Harold
49
Pop Star on Ice
49
Private Lives of Pippa Lee, The
74
Prodigal Sons
xx
Promised Lands (Re-release)
89
Prophet, A![]()
76
Red Riding Trilogy, The
63
Runaways, The
32
Saint John of Las Vegas
83
Secret of Kells, The![]()
69
September Issue, The
36
Serious Moonlight
57
Severe Clear
63
Shinjuku Incident, The
xx
Shutterbug
77
Single Man, A
76
Still Bill
34
Stolen
xx
Suicide Girls Must Die!
52
Tales from the Script
74
Terribly Happy
74
That Evening Sun
47
To Die for Tano
19
To Save a Life
63
Toe to Toe
69
Town Called Panic, A
54
Until the Light Takes Us
60
Videocracy
84
Vincere![]()
66
Waiting for Armageddon
45
White on Rice
82
White Ribbon![]()
xx
White Stripes Under Great White Northern Lights, The
43
Women in Trouble
xx
Word is Out
64
Yellow Handkerchief, The
64
Young Victoria, The
Stars indicate the most critically-acclaimed movies.
Edge of Darkness
EMAILPRINTWarner Bros. Pictures

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 34 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 40 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Drama | Suspense/Thriller
Written by:
William Monahan
Andrew Bovell
Directed by: Martin Campbell
Release Date:
Theatrical: January 29, 2010
Running Time: 117 minutes, Color
Origin: UK | USA
Summary
RATING: R for strong bloody violence and language
Starring Mel Gibson, Ray Winstone, Danny Huston, Shawn Roberts, Bojana Novakovic, Frank Grillo, and Gbenga Akinnagbe
Edge of Darkness is an emotionally charged thriller set at the intersection of politics and big business. Thomas Craven is a veteran homicide detective for the Boston Police Department and a single father. When his only child, twenty-four year-old Emma, is murdered on the steps of his home, everyone assumes that he was the target. But he soon suspects otherwise, and embarks on a mission to find out about his daughter's secret life and her killing. His investigation leads him into a dangerous, looking glass world of corporate cover-ups, government collusion and murder – and to shadowy government operative Darius Jedburgh, who has been sent in to clean up the evidence. Craven's solitary search for answers about his daughter's death transforms into an odyssey of emotional discovery and redemption. (Warner Bros.)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: Beyond Borders Casino Royale GoldenEye The Legend of Zorro The Mask of Zorro Vertical Limit
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen
An intense Mel Gibson performance anchors this brutally effective crime thriller.
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman
His (Gibson) slow-burn fury keeps the movie going, but not enough to invest us in any justice beyond payback.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips
Campbell’s film offers not surprises, exactly, but craftsmanship and low, brute, cunning satisfactions.
Read Full Review >San Francisco Chronicle Mick LaSalle
I don't see Edge of Darkness as a great movie, or a particularly exalted one, but I do see it as one made by people who know where the buttons are - and who know how to press them. Hard.
Read Full Review >USA Today Claudia Puig
Though the experience is nerve-racking and cathartic under Campbell's skilled direction, musings on family and grief and Gibson's intense, but subtle, performance stay with us longest.
Read Full Review >New York Post Lou Lumenick
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.
Read Full Review >New York Magazine David Edelstein
A meathead revenge picture, but it’s very satisfying. Director Martin Campbell, coming off "Casino Royale," has a style that’s blunt and bruising.
Read Full Review >Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek
Edge of Darkness is somewhat stylish, and it's intelligently made.
Read Full Review >Arizona Republic Bill Goodykoontz
Both the film and television project were directed by Martin Campbell. He creates a nice level of tension throughout, and there are a couple of legitimate shocks (including one jaw-dropper).
Read Full Review >Village Voice Nick Pinkerton
Onscreen much of the time, thicker and more creased than you remember, Gibson can make this rather unshapely movie seem taut.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
Winstone's interaction with Gibson provides the movie with much of its interest. For the rest, it's a skillful exercise in CGI and standard-order thriller supplies.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Sam Allis
The movie’s weaknesses include the overuse of grainy flashbacks of Craven’s daughter as a child, and the conversations he has with her after she is gone. Both are tremendously moving ideas but eventually succumb to bathos from repetition.
Read Full Review >Rolling Stone Peter Travers
Gibson's acting has deepened. Too bad his comeback vehicle springs so many leaks.
Read Full Review >Premiere Gene Newman
Apart from feeling misled by the trailers, it's a decent, middle-of-the-road adult thriller that competently goes through the paces.
Read Full Review >New Orleans Times-Picayune Mike Scott
Director Martin Campbell does a nice job of creating suspense, and Ray Winstone stands out for his performance as a conflicted hitman.
Read Full Review >New York Daily News Elizabeth Weitzman
In Hollywood, all is forgiven if you can deliver the goods. On-screen, at least, there’s little difference between this Gibson and the one we remember from earlier films like “Ransom” and “Payback.”
Read Full Review >Empire Nev Pierce
An uneven, somewhat meandering thriller is given emotional pull by Mel Gibson’s excellent comeback performance. The lethal weapon hasn’t lost it.
Read Full Review >Time Out New York Keith Uhlich
There’s no room for such soul-searching uncertainty with Gibson. After a few rapidly ticked-off minutes of gloom, the mission is clear: Get the sons of bitches, and make ’em pay.
Read Full Review >Variety Brian Lowry
Campbell's topnotch production team yields predictably polished results, but the director's decision to revisit the late Troy Kennedy Martin's teleplay, finally, feels lacking.
Read Full Review >Boxoffice Magazine Pete Hammond
They’ve shed all of the Brit-centric political aspects and updated it to make a riveting, pulse-pounding suspense thriller that really does keep you on ‘edge.’
Read Full Review >Orlando Sentinel Roger Moore
An odd duck of a thriller. Quiet, talkative, with the occasional explosion of violence, it has ghosts and characters philosophizing, quoting F. Scott Fitzgerald or blurting insensitive non-sequiturs.
Read Full Review >Chicago Reader Cliff Doerksen
Martin Campbell directed, displaying none of the flair that made his “Casino Royale” such a hoot.
Read Full Review >ReelViews James Berardinelli
Considering the talent involved and the strength of the source material, there's no way Edge of Darkness should have been this disappointing. Part of the problem is a direct result of condensation - there's no way to cram six hours of the dense mini-series upon which the movie is based into about 110 minutes without paying a penalty.
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Keith Phipps
Quickly devolves into another showcase for Gibson’s snorting-bull act, a routine he could happily have shelved during his time off.
Read Full Review >The New York Times A.O. Scott
Edge of Darkness is reasonably well executed, but its competence reeks of fatigue. Another dead kid. Another angry dad. Another day at the office.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell
Feels like a movie that wants to bare its fangs, but only manages a mild gumming.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey
The larger shell game here is that Edge of Darkness is offered as a political thriller, but with real-world politics removed. What we’re left with is a familiar mechanism for delivering a vicarious, violent, wish-fulfilment fantasy, with Mel in a familiar position, in the driver’s seat, pedal to the metal.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
The movie isn't exactly full of twists and turns, but neither is it a long, hard slog.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marc Savlov
Edge of Darkness has the look and feel of a Brit film shot in America – it's all dark, boxy rooms with powerful white men in impeccable black suits discussing how to tidy up the minor mishaps of their game over brandy and cigars.
Read Full Review >St. Louis Post-Dispatch Joe Williams
Here most of the punishment is inflicted on the audience, which gets nailed to a cross of boredom.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Edge of Darkness was one of the most enthralling, intricate and genuinely thrilling productions in the history of the small screen. The big-screen version--directed by Martin Campbell, who did the original--offers an example of why the studios' numbers often add up, and why, at the same time, so many of today's Hollywood movies leave us cool if not downright cold.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A thriller boasting Mel Gibson's first starring role in eight years, elicits a gigantic wow -- as in ``Wow, does this movie suck!''
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 7.1 (out of 10) based on 40 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
James H. gave it a7:
The theme of the movie (man seeks revenge) has been done countless times (Clint Eastwood movies even Law Abiding Citizen from this year and many more) but this one is done well. There are a few eye-rolling unbelievable moments but overall very entertaining.
Tom C. gave it an8:
Very stylish and intelligent film, slow in parts but will keep you hooked.
Lynn gave it a9:
I quite liked it! It was a thinking movie with enough suspense to keep me interested. I'd see it again.
Rob R gave it a7:
I never really fully believed in the bad guys, but I was never really bored either.
Mary L gave it a7:
I like it alot. Sure it was cliched and it was like watching mel Gibson all over again in the Patriot adn Braveheart, but for a good, enjoyable move, if you didn't think about it too much, it was great! But one question, can anyone tell me how Mel Gibson's character got the radiation?
Justin P. gave it a10:
when I heard about this movie I knew critics would oh so predictally do everything in their power to find its flaw... but this movie punches you in the gut repeated times until awarding you with a somewhat happy ending.... girlier critics are bashing this movie because in the end it turns into a die hard kind of thing... maybe they were expecting a big romantic moment where mel gibson kisses the bad guy in the end??
ZeeZee M gave it a9:
Agree critics are being harsh on this one, - maybe because of Mel. i enjoyed it and so did the crowd i watched it with!
