THE EDGE OF LOVE (M)

Director:
John Maybury

Starring:
Keira Knightly
Sienna Miller
Cillian Murphy

Plot Summary:
Two feisty, free-spirited women are connected by the brilliant, charismatic poet who loves them both.

Genre:
Drama, Romance

Duration:
110 Minutes

Origin:
U.K.

Language:
English

Reviews:

Review by Louise Keller
at Urban Cinefile

Love, war and poetry swirl together to form this cocktail of a film, in which fantasy and reality are the main, but conflicting ingredients. Sharman Macdonald (who also happens to be Keira Knightley's mother) has written a dense screenplay about a high-pitched emotional story involving Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (played by Matthew Rhys), his first love Vera (Knightley) and wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller). Infatuation, infidelity, friendship, jealousy and betrayal are not comfortable partners, as Vera and Caitlin discover with the help of Cillian Murphy's catalyst soldier hero William Killick. In keeping with Dylan's ethereal poetry, director John Maybury injects an artistic flourish to this involving drama, allowing us to understand the intricate complexities of the spiral of love and friendship in which the characters find themselves engrossed.

Knightley and Miller deliver splendid performances, the former showing she has a pretty, tuneful voice. Murphy is enigmatic as the strong-willed soldier, while Rhys is suitably soppy as the weak and often detestable Dylan.

Review by Andrew L. Urban
at Urban Cinefile

Artists and poets whose works have inspired and enriched our lives seem to have usually lived fairly rotten lives, and Dylan Thomas appears to be no exception. This wonderfully cinematic revelation of his life as seen through relationships with the two key women in his life doesn't have to convince us that every detail is historically accurate. It can't anyway. But it does convince in terms of characters and the mood of the times.

Matthew Rhys is remarkably effective as Dylan in a performance that captures the complexity of a man who lives to write, but is not very good at anything else. Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley are superb, too, as the sparring women united in friendship but at odds over love. Miller's feisty and risk taking free spirit Caitlin is an entire creation, while Knightley is riveting as the lovely and torn Vera.

The film's cinematic signature is made up of moody imagery that is still grounded in reality, but with poetic flourish. Angelo Badalamenti's score is elegantly understated but crucial, and Emma E. Hickox finds the right structure with her edit.

It's an ideal film for all those who complain about too many brash, youth oriented popcorn movies.

Trailer: