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The Edge of Love
Metascore
39 out of 100

Generally unfavorable - based on 13 Critics

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 0 out of 13
  2. Mixed: 10 out of 13
  3. Negative: 3 out of 13
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  1. The Hollywood Reporter
    Reviewed by: Ray Bennett
    60
    The film belongs to the women, with Knightley going from strength to strength (and showing she can sing!) and Miller again proving that she has everything it takes to be a major movie star.
  2. Empire
    Reviewed by: Olly Richards
    60
    The cast is strong and the first act has an intriguingly dreamy quality, but it gives way to a soggy ending.
  3. San Francisco Chronicle
    Reviewed by: Mick LaSalle
    50
    Holds a lot of promise in its first hour and never completely falls apart, but it's ultimately not the movie it might have been.
  4. Variety
    Reviewed by: Leslie Felperin
    50
    While the period drama has several redeeming features, tonally it's all over the map, veering between artsy stylization and hum-drum, sometimes almost twee melodrama.
  5. Washington Post
    Reviewed by: Ann Hornaday
    50
    That none of the protagonists earns the audience's sympathy is more likely a failure of the real-life characters rather than the actors, who deliver fine performances -- especially Rhys, who seems to be channeling Richard Burton channeling Dylan Thomas at his most manipulatively loutish.
  6. The A.V. Club
    Reviewed by: Noel Murray
    50
    The Edge Of Love is more like a museum piece, placing historical figures in frozen positions, and asking us to judge them as the curators do.
  7. Christian Science Monitor
    Reviewed by: Peter Rainer
    42
    The best thing The Edge of Love could do for you is to send you back to Thomas's poetry. Dash this folderol.
  8. New York Daily News
    Reviewed by: Elizabeth Weitzman
    40
    The Edge of Love may be intended as a biopic of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, but it's destined to be remembered as the movie that brought Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller into the same bathtub.
  9. Los Angeles Times
    Reviewed by: Kenneth Turan
    40
    Sometimes glossy, sometimes hard-edged, the film alternates between glitz and unpleasantness and ends as a kind of glum soap opera, too glam to be bleak and too bleak to be so glam.
  10. The New York Times
    Reviewed by: Manohla Dargis
    40
    The story here, plucked from Thomas's life and embellished, proves almost entirely devoid of interest.
  11. Philadelphia Inquirer
    Reviewed by: Steven Rea
    38
    A stagy, arty, and uncompelling account of the Welsh writer and his menage-y relations.
  12. Boston Globe
    Reviewed by: Ty Burr
    38
    A "great poet" movie, the poet in this case being Dylan Thomas, and it's utter bollocks.
  13. L.A. Weekly
    Reviewed by: Melissa Anderson
    30
    Director John Maybury showed a defter hand with the artist biopic in his 1998 Francis Bacon film, "Love Is the Devil." Here he repeatedly falls into the genre's traps, creating an inert, claustrophobic movie.
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User Reviews

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User Score
6.4 out of 10

Generally favorable reviews- based on 7 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 2 out of 3
  2. Mixed: 0 out of 3
  3. Negative: 1 out of 3
  1. JayH.
    6
    Well produced, but they seemed to try too hard on the period detail. Too many slow stretches prevent it from being a great film. The film lacks spunk, it's too bland. The performances are fine, good art direction.… Full Review »
  2. Roz
    3
    A period piece that has no idea what it wants to be, crippled by the presence of a preposterously unlikable core character. Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy march off with the acting honors, though Miller can't corral her supposedly Irish accent and Murphy's William Killick spends eighty percent of the film off-screen. Keira Knightley is her usual brittle self, and Dylan Thomas, as portrayed by Matthew Rhys, is such a boozing, backstabbing sponge and a cad that you can't understand why either of his so-called "great loves" had anything to do with him. Next time, hire a script editor for Sharman Macdonald, and tell Ms. Macdonald she's to pick a theme and stick with it.… Full Review »
  3. AndrewE
    9
    A fantastic film. Very well acted, atmospheric with brilliant set pieces. The drama between these characters can be electric. One of my favourite movies this year.… Full Review »
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