The Edge of Love – Blu-ray Review

By Frankie Dees Jul 27, 2009, 14:04 GMT

In the bohemian underground of World War II London, a stirring love story ignites among legendary poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys, TV\'s Brothers and Sisters) and the two extraordinary women who inspire him. Sienna Miller (Casanova) is Caitlin, Thomas\' free-spirited wife, while Keira Knightley (Atonement) is Vera, the long-lost teenage sweetheart who later reconnects with Thomas. Despite their romantic rivalry, the two women form a surprisingly close bond. The trio ...more

A commendable effort but not nearly as effective as it needs or wants to be due to a sporadic tone, ‘The Edge of Love’ relays the love stories of two couples caught up in a blending of emotions with poet Dylan Thomas at the center of it all. 

No doubt gaining a healthy theatrical push in UK due to the participation of Brit stars Keira Knightley (who reteams with ‘The Jacket’ director John Maybury), Sienna Miller, Matthew Rhys and Cillian Murphy, the distinctly arthouse subject matter barely got it a second look here in the states despite the moderate marquee value on display. 

Admittedly, judging even via comparatively stodgy independent cinema standards, this pic can be somewhat of a slog to get through as our main character, poet Dylan Thomas, is a somewhat insufferable prig. Matthew Rhys doesn’t give Thomas any charisma to justify why the two women in his life would be so consumed.

The story begins in 1940 London with Thomas working for the war effort by writing for propaganda films. Exasperated by wasting his talent, he fortuitously runs into an old girlfriend Vera Phillips (Knightley) who grew up with Thomas in Wales – he was Vera’s first love. She’s now eking out a living singing in underground shelters during bomb raids. 

Introduced to Dylan’s wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller), Vera moves in with the couple and an odd threesome-like rapport develops with Caitlin and Vera becoming fast, but nevertheless suspicious, friends.

A fourth party-member is introduced in the form of an English soldier William Killick (Cillian Murphy). He takes an immediate liking to Vera. Despite early reservations from Vera, a bomb attack survival together sparks some romance and an eventual marriage before he ships off to Greece to fight. 

With William at war, the three escape to some picturesque cottages on the Welsh seaside where Vera is raising her infant son Rowatt, presumably conceived shortly before William is shipped off, side by side with Dylan and Caitlin and their older boy Llewellyn.

Here the narrative settles into a melodramatic slowburn with everybody cheating, drinking and smoking while William suffers from superfluous war B-movie montages (attempting and failing to achieve an effect similar to ‘Atonement’)

When William returns, it’s clear that some answers are called for with his military wages all but gone and small-town rumors convincing William of his suspicions. Paranoid and shell-shocked, he resorts to drunken violence where the last act now becomes an inept courtroom drama and a resolution that never really recovers from this awkwardly handled plot development. 

Written by Knightley’s mother Sharman Macdonald (mostly theater writing), individual scenes seem to work but the pace and overall structure is sloppy and doesn’t quite feel cohesive - I could never really escape the allusion of watching a film. Performances are okay but outside of Murhpy’s typically logical character actions, I wasn’t buying the relationship between Thomas and the two women. 

Understanding that Thomas is supposed to be a bit of a prig, there was still little charisma on display to draw in the two women as deeply as he did. I suppose it was his poetry yet despite a few readings, the film doesn’t really push that angle. It’s competently made, however, with nice period details and archival footage to appropriately convey the Blitz atmosphere. 

Director Maybury tried to get fancy by shooting the London sequences on digital and the Welsh sequences in 35 MM but I imagine most audiences won’t even notice. The high-def 1080p 1.85:1 encode is a sharp affair with certain stylized scenes greatly benefiting.

By the time the action moves to Wales, a lot of the colors have been drained so the pic comes across as intentionally drab. A DTS-HD Master Aud track is provided and does a nice job with a mix that’s not too aggressive.

Special Features include an audio commentary from director John Maybury and actor Matthew Rhys. It’s actually a pretty fun track with the two apparently just sitting down from a pub visit. ‘Looking over the Edge of Love’ is a short making-of including the usual cast and crew interviews. We get a short ‘Gag Reel’ and a standard-def trailer to round things out. 

There are some good scenes interspersed in a thoroughly ho-hum film that can never quite settle down on a particular tone or pull in the focus when it needs to. The cast is fine but the characters are a mostly unlikable bunch so it’s questionable how many viewers might want to spend time with them.

If you’re a fan of Knightley and her period pieces up to date or the work of Dylan Thomas, this might prove a rental, everyone else can safely pass. 

The Edge of Love [Blu-ray] is now available at Amazon. Visit the DVD database for more information.