Movie Reviews

Movie Reviews: The Edge of Love

Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys) is a mooching deadbeat, his wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller) is a coarse slut, his once and would-be future lover Vera Philips (Keira Knightley) is a sophisticated tease, and Vera's soldier boyfriend William (Cillian Murphy) is too naively lovestruck to realize he shouldn't have anything to do with any of them. No wonder The Edge of Love has a title that sounds more like a soap opera than an episode of Masterpiece Theatre.

The movie's first image is a gorgeously arty close-up of Knightley's radiant face, all glossy red lips and postcard-airbrushed skin tones as she serenades a crowd of attentive Londoners. Knightley does all of her own singing in the film, and she's actually pretty good. But although she's dressed to kill, with stage lighting and a backup band, the performance is taking place in an underground tube station. It's 1940, the Blitz is on, and that's one of the places where city residents take shelter from German bombs.

She later runs into childhood friend Dylan. Ineligible for the draft due to lung problems, Dylan resents having to write and narrate war propaganda films for a living. The two of them converse in quick, clipped dialog that's supposed to pass for witty badinage but feels annoyingly artificial. At their next meeting, Dylan is cock-blocked by the surprise arrival of wife Caitlin, who has left their young son with in-laws in Wales. Where Vera is cool, impeccably dressed and affects a posh accent, Caitlin does a cartwheel in the pub and announces, "What do you need knickers for? You've only got to wash them!" Gorblimey!

Murphy is good as the sad-eyed soldier smitten with Vera, who accepts his marriage proposal when he gets his deployment orders. By that time, Dylan and Caitlin have moved in with Vera, Dylan isn't being subtle about wanting to get into Vera's pants, and Caitlin has threatened to kill Vera if that happens. Yet all three eventually move back to Wales together, along with Vera's new baby.

Knightley isn't quite up to conveying Vera's transformation from cool city chanteuse to miserable middle-of-nowhere mother, but Miller nails the role of Dylan's jealous, bitter spouse. Unfortunately, Rhys shows none of the charisma the real Dylan presumably possessed. His Dylan is such a snide, needy lout that it's hard to imagine either woman being attracted to him, even if he did have a way with the written word.

The movie's last act is its best, when William returns from war and doesn't much like what he finds. If the rest of the based-on-real-events plot had been equally dramatic, The Edge of Love may have lived up to the promise of its highbrow-trashy premise.

—James Dawson
03.11.09