Edmond (2006)

Powerful

Highly Overrated But Still Good

The acting in this movie is really good.

The story, direction, characters, and writing/dialogue is akin to taking a tranquilizer shot to the neck, but everything else was so well done.

I decided to give this movie a try because I am a tremendous fan of Julia Stiles. And William H. Macy can be entertaining. I think Julia Stiles was totally wasted in this movie. I do not have any idea why Julia Stiles agreed to be in Edmond unless maybe it was a "contract" issue. I found the movie to be disjointed. If the movie was supposed to be portraying a person degenerating into malevolence and one would like to see this I recommend Falling Down (1993) staring Michael Douglas and Robert Duvall. I think the movie, Edmond, would be better if the movie had not been made.

Edmond was an amazing trip through what we humans are truly capable of. The movie is short but brutal ride in one man trying to find him self, and the people he ran over.The racist tones didn't bother me i in fact found it refreshing for a change, as i believe that people should say what they mean. In America we have laws now ruling speech so people don't get their feelings hurt. I believe that everyone has a right not like you, love you, respect you, or even want to be around you. As a black American i find my self thinking the same thing Edmond thought about lazy quick buck people, but of all races though.Edmond's constant complaints about n***rs was just jungle fever in the end, and got to live the dream in as he called it a safe place. Macy's constant telling all the whores their price was too much was funny. This was one of Macy's top performances, and hands down his most intense.The scenes between Stiles and Macy blew me away with the back and forth until she realizes she made a fatal mistake bringing Edmond's out of control butt to her home. I also liked how Edmond wanted a do over at the police station to go back to his wife until the officer asked him why he killed that girl, an question he couldn't answer or seem to show any remorse for.Don't let your kids see this movie this a very thinking adults film very much worth seeing more than once.

Stuart Gordon is known for his Lovecraft adaptions and the terribly violent "King of the Ants". David Mamet is without doubt a great writer, and this movie shows that he is very brilliant. The tagline by a reviewer: "Makes Falling Down look like Bambi" is pretty funny, and also quite true. Unlike Falling Down this movie actually portrays a character, Edmond, which could exist in real life, and we understand what motivates him. It 's, like "King of the Ants", a very disturbing and violent movie. I had to, from time to time, fast forward because I found it too disturbing what might happen next, and I had to see what happened next. There's also some great philosophical dialogue and we can really understand that this character is searching for the meaning of life. This movie is certainly worth seeing and fits in well with movies like "Taxi Driver", "Bad Leutenant", "Death Wish" and "Falling Down" (also a good movie in its own right, didn't mean to downgrade it). Moreover, it is quite a good movie about urban alienation.

Edmond Burke (William H. Macy) has grown frustrated with his life, and after a visit to a tarot reader, he has decided to start a new life. And that new life is going to start with some sexual fantasy and a bit of violence... where will it go? While I have no interest in talking poorly about writer David Mamet, this film is much like "Falling Down" with Michael Douglas, another white-collar man who goes through a mental break. Sadly, the difference is in style: this film is more artistic, and "Falling Down" is more gripping. Where Douglas can be fierce and menacing, Macy can only come off as nervous... even his most violent moments do not have the emotional sincerity that Douglas exudes.Anyone who wants to rent this should be warned in advance, the back cover of the DVD is riddled with lies. It claims to "star" Mena Suvari, Denise Richards and Julia Stiles. That is a lie, as only Stiles has a scene of more than three minutes. You could just as easily say George Wendt or Jeffrey Combs star. The box also claims this is "a first rate mystery", but there is no mystery to be found in this film. None.Likewise, the film is a bit hard to categorize... it's something of a violent drama. Hollywood Video called it horror, and the box calls it a thriller. The thrills are minimal (this is a slow-paced film) and it is not horror in any traditional sense. Stuart Gordon is a great director and a very nice man, but fans should be aware that this falls more in line with "King of the Ants" or "Stuck" than it does with any of his more well-known horror masterpieces.I will not discuss the philosophical aspects. Edmond believes that "every fear hides a wish", and he has constructed an interesting racial theory. The viewer can take these however they like, I do not know if there is an overarching meaning behind any of it... I found they fleshed out Edmond's character but had little value beyond the film itself. The deleted scenes, a mere six minutes, add a bit of intrigue and should probably have remained, especially with the film running only 82 minutes.Stuart Gordon or David Mamet fans should see this one. It's not going to blow you away, and beyond little thrills like a Jeffrey Combs cameo and some semi-nudity from Julia Stiles, it is not the most memorable. But Gordon's career is best understood in its complete vision, and this is outside the scope of his better-known work.