Edge of Madness (2002)

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

Exactly the movie you think it is, but not the movie you want it to be.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In 1851, the young woman Annie is married off to Simon, a nonstop jerk(who you can still somewhat understand the reasoning of... he's proud, a product of his time and pragmatic) but finds herself far more interested in his sweet brother. Divorce is an impossibility in this period, and that leaves only one option if the two are to be together. I got this on sale, as part of a deal, and was honestly surprised by its quality. The acting is pretty good, if the accents switch between not only regions but continents even in the middle of the fairly well-written dialog. This is filmed and edited reasonably well. The pace is tight, there aren't any real slow spots, and in fact this manages to tell a lot in just under 90 minutes sans credits. This goes into the themes of innocence(can it remain intact?) and guilt(who is truly responsible for what happens in this?). A lot of harsh reality in this, from nature and from "the system", and it tends to be dealt with in a believable manner. Perhaps the very conclusion is a tad "easy". Maybe they didn't think of anything better. There is a bit of strong sexuality and violence in this. I recommend this to fans of drama-thrillers. 7/10

Edge of Madness is a tale about a woman in the 1800's who gets hand-picked by dirty Scotsman who can't keep his penis in his pants. He just so happens to have a younger brother who is against rape and kills him, but continuously says it was an accident. This makes his wife go crazy, she gets delusional and she takes the fall because she loves George too much.Like I said, this type of thing has been done before. This is just more "artistic" because it's Canadian and it's an indie production done on a low-budget with hardly known actors (except that one kid from Lassie, yea, he's in it). I dunno' whether this was going for Oscar bait, but it was sure as hell boring. And this is based on a 40 page short story. Half of that short story is incorporated into this flick, and I'm glad. Otherwise, I'd bore to death. Unfortunately, I had to watch it in my Media Fundamentals class, and I had an assignment on it. Read the short story and compare and contrast the flick to the story. BORING.You know, it's harder to answer movie questions when you don't like the movie. Ah well, I hope this is the last type of assignment me and my class get. For what it's worth, Annie Herron was totally hot, she had a nice, soft ass and I liked the nude parts of her in the movie.3/10 for boring, Oscar bait performance and graphic sexuality..plus nudity.

The haunting landscape could well be Minnesota and the story is reminiscent of Maud Hart Lovelace's Gentlemen from England and Karl Rolvaag's Giants in the Earth, both of whom were Minnesota authors. Besides the lead actress, Caroline Dhavernas, who is wonderful, it's fun to see Peter Wingfield and Paul Johansson in something with a little more gravitas than Highlander. Okay, Peter's Scottish accent and Paul's English? Dutch? accent left a good deal to be desired, but who cares. It is beautifully shot, with exquisite production design and costuming. Ann Wheeler built this film with lots of love. It unrolls like a tone poem written by Ingmar Bergman.

I very much enjoyed Caroline Dhavernas' performance in the failed series Wonderfalls, so I thought I would purchase the Edge of Madness DVD, and view some of her other work. Besides Wonderfalls, I had only previously seen her in the comedy Out Cold, and wanted to see her in a serious work. However, I was ultimately disappointed by the film, and would not recommend it.Firstly, as I knew some background on Caroline Dhavernas, and her character was of French background in the film, I assumed the film took place somewhere in Canada. However, the film never makes this clear, and simply announces the location as "Red River Valley." Any Canadian worth their salt might know that this is located in the province of Manitoba, but as an American, I was not familiar with it, and would have preferred greater clarity, e.g. "Red River Valley, Manitoba." I suppose the film's producers never expected many people outside of Canada to take interest in the film, and didn't feel they needed to clarify, which seems somewhat unprofessional.At any rate, the film starts promisingly, and it seems the viewer is in for a good mystery. However, throughout the entire film, we're fed large blocks of Caroline Dhavernas' character's flashbacks. A truly compelling mystery leaves the viewer in the dark until the very end. However, this film keeps its viewers remarkably well-informed from beginning to end, making the final details of the story less-than-shocking. When the audience knows more than the film's investigating constable the entire time, it's difficult to even classify this film as a mystery.A further hindrance to the enjoyment of the film was the extraordinarily thick Scottish accents two of the main characters have. I found myself frequently having to rewind the film, and even activate the English subtitles, just to get key pieces of dialogue in the movie. At some points, I even let the muddled lines go, too frustrated to rewind. There's a fine line between authentic and unintelligible, and if being the first means being the latter, I feel that it's okay to sacrifice a little sliver of authenticity for the sake of the viewer's comprehension. Fortunately, Ms. Dhavernas' French accent and the standard North American accents of the rest of the cast came through loud and clear.The ending was quite muddled, leaving me without much of a sense of closure, justice or satisfaction. It left me wondering if the characters had really grown or learnt anything throughout the entire film, and if it really did justice to the film's themes. Also, the characters' relationships really weren't well-developed in my opinion, and needed more depth.All this being said, the film's acting was excellent. Caroline Dhavernas did her best with a bad script, and her performance was quite moving and mature. Brendan Fehr, of the canceled series Roswell, proves that he can also handle a serious role, and the rest of the cast does adequate work. However, even such superb acting cannot salvage an inherently ill-conceived script.In conclusion, Edge of Madness is an intelligent, well-acted film, but written and formatted poorly, and often confusing. If you're a die-hard Caroline Dhavernas fan, rent it just for the heck of it, but if not, don't waste your money on a purchase or even a rental. It's a waste of your time and a waste of good talent.