The Edge Of Love Review

I really like the fact that I'm from Wales. So much so that I tell everyone I meet almost immediately that I'm Welsh. The thing is though I'm not, Welsh that is. (My grandfather was Welsh so its not a total lie but I'm really quite English.) I think its the annoying overly humble thing again where I want to be forgotten about so I can't get blamed for bad things like occupying countries and taxation. No, to keep me from guilt give me the land of cheese on toast, male voice choirs and Dylan Thomas. None of those things ever upset anyone did they?

Well Dylan Thomas certainly bloody did. He was a huge arsehole. A monumental prick. A 5 star dickhead. According to The Edge of Love anyway. But in it Dul-an isn't really the main character and its certainly not a biopic of his life. Instead the film revolves around four people, Dylan himself (Matthew Rhys), his wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller), his one time lover Vera (Keira Knightley) and her husband William (Cillian Murphy) all dealing with sexual tension, WWII and enough booze and fags to put down George Best.

If you've recently quit smoking (you're a pussy, smoking is cool!) steer well clear of this film as all they do is smoke, smoke, smoke. They also drink and fuck. Which seems to be the story. Four friends shag and party then it all goes a bit wrong when William comes back from the army all mental and shit. But maybe its more to do with the two girls friendship rather than the incident with the machine gun? Or maybe it is about Dylan and his genius and arrogance? Or its an Atonement carbon copy, the story of a wife pining for her soldier to return?

This lack of coherence certainly doesn't make it a bad film (coherency is not something that I desperately need in a film) but it may stop it being a great film. That and Keira. I'm not gonna bash Ms. Kinghtly and her massive chin, I think she's good some of the time but never anything more than good. My fear is that her 'great actress' status is gonna end up ruining a lot of potentially awesome movies because people think she can hold a screen. She can't. Neither can Sienna but she's certainly shot up in my estimations. If she keeps out of the papers for long enough I may even grow to like her. For now though I'm off for a smoke, bach.