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More suited to a sexually themed brawl on Gary Springer
than a WWII period Blitzkrieg bohemian romp, The Edge Of
Love seems to have layered this tawdry tale with the persona
of legendary Welsh poet Dylan Thomas simply as a hook. And
this while the designated objects of Dylan's multiple desires
- Sienna Miller and Keira Knightley - appear to have wandered,
armed with their respective enormous talents, into the wrong
movie.***
Matthew Rhys is the perpetually inebriated party animal
bad boy Dylan. With his signature moppy head and barely
contained generic lust, the character isn't given much to
do beyond playing incorrigibly horny, urinating on house
plants, and spouting a random verse or two from his magnificent
poetry given short shrift here. Meanwhile, the camera lovingly
lingers on Sienna and Keira, as if the movie is primarily
a scheduled photo shoot while the enemy bombs rain down
on London. Keira Knightley is Vera Philips, a retro-trendy
nightclub torch singer excessively smoking and wearing too
much lipstick. A childhood chum and sometime lover of Dylan's,
Vera initially freaks when his surprise wife Caitlin (Sienna
Miller), the mother of his child, turns up, but then warms
to her as a new best friend. No shrinking violet or mere
domestic house pet, Caitlin is a brash, bubbly Irish former
showgirl, sort of the Britney Spears of her day, who does
impromptu cartwheels in saloons minus undies. As Caitlin
explains, 'what do you need knickers for, when you've only
got to wash them?'***
At the same time, Vera is pestered into marrying William
(Cillian Murphy), a stalker solider on leave whose persistent
advances she bluntly spurns at first, because 'you might
be dead tomorrow.' But when the far from blushing new bride
finds herself pregnant, William turns violent and more than
suspicious that paternity resides with the randy poet. Which
lands the entire free love menagerie in court, and nastily
at each other's throats. Paging Nancy Grace.***
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