"The Edge of Love" Review - Written by Anthony T

The Edge of Love
Year: 2009
Director: John Maybury
Studio: Image Entertainment
Stars: Keria Knightly, Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys
MPAA Rating: R
Running Time: 111 Mins





“The Edge of Love is a film that is set in World War II. The film is about the passions and grief of poet Dylan Thomas and the two women that inspired him.

Thomas is a married man that reconnects with his long lost sweetheart, one night during one of his wife’s performances. Soon, the three begin to have the time of their lives that filled with passion and friendship. Everything the three shared is ruined, when the sweetheart’s husband returns from the war, badly damaged. From there jealousy erupts, as the soldier comes home to find out that she’s been cheating on him and all four of them will never be the same.

“The Edge of Love” is a love story that was for the most part entertaining. Director John Maybury does a good job creating this World War II type love story. He captures the time period, from the music to the war scenes and devastation that took place. Maybury also did a very good job keeping my interest for most of the film, as the performances here help this decent script. He does a good job getting the performances that he needed from his lead actors, Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, and Matthew Rhys. The three actors performances were very good, as the chemistry was good and I felt that the characters fit the time period, very well. It made it entertaining enough to forget the minor grips that I had with this film

The screenplay written by Sharmar MacDonald was one that was good for over two-thirds until the end. Let me start on the positives. The screenplay does a good job developing the main characters very well. He spends the time developing the relationship, friendships, and love triangle that the major characters are engaged in. It really helps create tension, which helps this film especially when the film begins to stumble. The tension keeps your interest so that the story isn't totally loss.

If there was one problem that I had with this film, the fact that when the Cillian Murphy character came onscreen, whatever enjoyment I had with this film seemed to disappear. The reason for that, I didn’t find his character interesting. I don’t know if it was the performance or that the fact that the character seemed liked he had nothing to do until the last third of the movie. But everytime that he was onscreen, the film started to slow down for me and became boring. Murphy’s character was not interesting at all and took away from the main focus.

‘The Edge Of Love” is a mildly entertaining World War II love story that could have been something special.