Mel Gibson fires a blank in Edge of Darkness

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Here, Craven (Gibson) is a tough Boston homicide detective who welcomes his grown-up daughter (Bojana Novakovic) home only to find that she’s sick, possibly from poison, and that someone is after her. It isn’t long before she’s shot dead on his doorstep.

At first the traumatised cop believes the bullets were meant for him. However, finding a gun among her possessions and searching out her boyfriend who clearly fears for his life, he begins to suspect a conspiracy that has nothing to do with him.

He’s right. There are shady goings-on at the private research facility where his daughter worked involving crooked government officials and weapons manufacturers, and she was trying to expose them. Both Danny Huston as her boss and Ray Winstone as a mysterious fixer (taking over from Robert De Niro after "creative differences") will clearly do anything to stop him uncovering the truth.

Gibson plays the disconsolate father with grim determination, seldom cracking a smile, and Campbell orchestrates his finale — during which nearly everybody is killed — with some skill.

However, the film, while it doesn’t lack tension, never catches fire. Compared with the mini-series, it seems flattened out and improbable. It’s as if the change in setting has changed the mood too. And not for the better.

Edge Of Darkness
Cert: 15