The Edge of Love (2009)
The Edge of Love (2009): 1.5/10
The Edge of Love is a complete disaster. It is annoying, meandering, undecided, unimportant, pointless and most important it is boring. I hated this movie. I will start off by naming the aspects of the film that I liked. I liked looking at Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy. I think they all try their hardest and I think they do what they can with the material. I learned that Keira Knightley has a fantastic singing voice. I thought Angelo Badalamenti’s score was reliably fantastic and his music brought the only ounce of emotion that exists within the film. The film is nice to look at even when it is trying too hard. That is it. That is all I have to say.
Did this story about poet Dylan Thomas, wife Caitlin and lover Vera need to be told? Have I ever seen a more pointless film in my life? Have I ever cared less about characters on screen? Have I ever been this confused as to the reasons I should care about any of these people? The answers to all of these questions are no.
None of these characters are sympathetic. They have all chosen their bohemian lifestyle. They have all chosen to be around Dylan Thomas perhaps the most uninteresting and incessantly unlikable character to come around in quite some time. Why should I care about anyone who sees anything in this prick? They all spend the entire film avoiding their problems, acting immature and careless while at the same time seeming constantly on the brink of changing their situations but nerve actually doing anything. Keep in mind this is coming from someone who loves Margot at the Wedding, a film with extremely unlikable characters. A lot of times I like films with unlikable characters….when they are actually characters and not pieces of cardboard with the sole trait of annoying.
Then we have Cillian Murphy’s character which gives us scenes from WWII that I feel like I have seen dozens of times at this point. Nothing new is brought to the table. The film has no idea what it wants to be. It decides to focus on Vera and Caitlin’s friendship but never digs deep into it and in the meantime sacrifices any development in any other aspect of the film in an effort to focus on the friendship which goes ultimately UNDEVELOPED! The film cannot even figure out why it should exist as it comes up with nothing after nothing to keep anybody engaged in the proceedings outside of the pretty cast which of course the director shoots beautifully. Not an impressive feat to shoot beautiful people beautifully. The work is already done for you. I wanted to rip my eyes out during this film. I hate everything and anything within it. I cannot even come up with anything intelligent to say because my mind starts to disintegrate when I begin thinking about this nonsense. How much nonsense is it do you ask? Well on my Favorite to Least Favorite Film of 2009 list WOLVERINE IS ABOVE THIS!!! WOLVERINE!!! A movie that I despise is still a movie that I enjoyed more than this. However I must admit, despite my hatred for this, the putrid Whatever Works is still below it. In conclusion, do not see this movie; not for free not for a friend, not for anyone…unless they have a gun to your head.
The Edge of Love is a complete disaster. It is annoying, meandering, undecided, unimportant, pointless and most important it is boring. I hated this movie. I will start off by naming the aspects of the film that I liked. I liked looking at Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller and Cillian Murphy. I think they all try their hardest and I think they do what they can with the material. I learned that Keira Knightley has a fantastic singing voice. I thought Angelo Badalamenti’s score was reliably fantastic and his music brought the only ounce of emotion that exists within the film. The film is nice to look at even when it is trying too hard. That is it. That is all I have to say.
Did this story about poet Dylan Thomas, wife Caitlin and lover Vera need to be told? Have I ever seen a more pointless film in my life? Have I ever cared less about characters on screen? Have I ever been this confused as to the reasons I should care about any of these people? The answers to all of these questions are no.
None of these characters are sympathetic. They have all chosen their bohemian lifestyle. They have all chosen to be around Dylan Thomas perhaps the most uninteresting and incessantly unlikable character to come around in quite some time. Why should I care about anyone who sees anything in this prick? They all spend the entire film avoiding their problems, acting immature and careless while at the same time seeming constantly on the brink of changing their situations but nerve actually doing anything. Keep in mind this is coming from someone who loves Margot at the Wedding, a film with extremely unlikable characters. A lot of times I like films with unlikable characters….when they are actually characters and not pieces of cardboard with the sole trait of annoying.
Then we have Cillian Murphy’s character which gives us scenes from WWII that I feel like I have seen dozens of times at this point. Nothing new is brought to the table. The film has no idea what it wants to be. It decides to focus on Vera and Caitlin’s friendship but never digs deep into it and in the meantime sacrifices any development in any other aspect of the film in an effort to focus on the friendship which goes ultimately UNDEVELOPED! The film cannot even figure out why it should exist as it comes up with nothing after nothing to keep anybody engaged in the proceedings outside of the pretty cast which of course the director shoots beautifully. Not an impressive feat to shoot beautiful people beautifully. The work is already done for you. I wanted to rip my eyes out during this film. I hate everything and anything within it. I cannot even come up with anything intelligent to say because my mind starts to disintegrate when I begin thinking about this nonsense. How much nonsense is it do you ask? Well on my Favorite to Least Favorite Film of 2009 list WOLVERINE IS ABOVE THIS!!! WOLVERINE!!! A movie that I despise is still a movie that I enjoyed more than this. However I must admit, despite my hatred for this, the putrid Whatever Works is still below it. In conclusion, do not see this movie; not for free not for a friend, not for anyone…unless they have a gun to your head.
