The Edge of Love (2008)
Average Rating: 5.1/10
Reviews Counted: 57
Fresh: 20 | Rotten: 37
Despite effective performances from Knightley and Miller, The Edge of Love lacks a coherent narrative.
Average Rating: 4.4/10
Critic Reviews: 17
Fresh: 4 | Rotten: 13
Despite effective performances from Knightley and Miller, The Edge of Love lacks a coherent narrative.
liked it
Average Rating: 3/5
User Ratings: 53,336
My Rating
Movie Info
The Jacket director John Maybury adapts playwright Sharman MacDonald's account of the true-life relationships shared between Welsh poet Dylan Thomas; his wife, Caitlin; his lifelong friend Vera Phillips; and her husband, William Killick, in this biographical drama centering on the curious incident in which Thomas found his home turned into a war zone when Phillips and Killick attacked the abode with a machine gun and a grenade. Sienna Miller assumes the role of Dylan's wife, Caitlin, and Keira
Watch It Now
Cast
-
Keira Knightley
Vera Phillips -
Sienna Miller
Caitlin MacNamara -
Matthew Rhys
Dylan Thomas -
Cillian Murphy
William Killick -
Simon Armstrong
Wilfred Hosgood -
Ben Batt
Sergeant -
Geoffrey Beevers
Registrar -
Rachel Bell
Midwife -
Paul Brooke
Mr. Justice Singleton -
Huw Ceredig
John Patrick -
Richard Clifford
Alistair Graham -
Anne Lambton
Anita Shenkin -
Lisa Stansfield (II)
Ruth Williams -
Nick Stringer
PC Williams -
Suggs
The Crooner -
Camilla Rutherford
Nicolette -
Alastair Mackenzie
Anthony Devas -
Ray Llewellyn
Dewi Ianthe -
Jonny Phillips
John Eldridge -
Richard Dillane
Lt. Col. David Talbot R... -
Simon Kassianides
Partisan -
Rachel Essex
Mel -
Neville Malcolm
Big Joe
ADVERTISEMENT
All Critics (61) | Top Critics (17) | Fresh (21) | Rotten (39) | DVD (7)
The Edge of Love holds a lot of promise in its first hour and never completely falls apart, but it's ultimately not the movie it might have been.
Top CriticThis may be Knightley's first truly mature performance. Too bad it arrives wrapped in doggerel.
For all its vivid evocation of its characters' tomorrow-we-die bonhomie, the film finally never quite convinces viewers of its central subject: the sisterly, almost sapphic bond between Vera and Caitlin.
The movie makes for an engaging enough period piece.
While Thomas fans will regret seeing their literary hero reduced to a generic drunk, even those awaiting the aforementioned bathtub scene will find it barely worth the effort.
Booze and jealousy make a toxic cocktail, one that's heavily imbibed with much self-lacerating gusto in the grim British drama The Edge of Love.
[Knightley & Miller] frolicking on the beach ... could easily be a couple of models from a Boden fashion shoot at play.
It's so hard, being a poet. ... Such is the wisdom of The Edge of Love, a movie unfortunately as banal as its tagline, 'The only thing more dangerous than war is love.'
...makes us wonder by the time it's over whether it was worth our trouble watching it. (Blu-ray Edition)
When it's over...we have to wonder why any of it mattered in the first place.
Maybury tackles the great Dylan Thomas in The Edge of Love, a speculative investigation into a cloudy period of the poet and dramatist's personal life. [Blu-ray]
click for full review
Ah, the London Blitz. Bombs falling, buildings on fire, people dying all around. Good times, good times.
Unfortunately, like the murky visuals, the story is also muddled.
A bit too arty and concerned with quasi-historical detail to catch fire as a romance (doomed or otherwise), and too yawningly familiar in its major chord plotting to set sail as a honest character ensemble.
While all the pieces are there for an intriguing film, John Maybury's The Edge of Love never really becomes anything.
The Edge of Love is literate and often lovely to look at, but unless you're requesting an off-key bohemian rhapsody, do not go gentle into that good theater.
Though very uneven in style and focus . . . the fraught complications among the foursome raise universal issues of freewheeling young love and friendship during wartime.
Audience Reviews for The Edge of Love
Super Reviewer
-
- Dylan Thomas: Not for the proud man apart from the raging moon I write on the spendthrift pages, nor for the towering dead with their nightingales and psalms, but for the lovers, their arms round the griefs of the ages.
-
- Vera Phillips: You don't even see me, do you? Dylan! All you've got is stories in your head. Words. And I have to feel real. William... makes me real.
-
- Dylan Thomas: I do it, sleep with other women... because I'm a poet, and a poet feeds off life.
Discussion Forum
There are no discussion threads for The Edge of Love yet.
Latest News on The Edge of Love
March 12, 2009:
Critics Consensus: Race to Witch Mountain Doesn't Cast A SpellThis week at the movies, we've got a supernatural quest (Race to Witch Mountain, starring Dwayne...
June 20, 2008:
RT Interview: Keira Knightley on Welsh Accents and Life After PiratesBritain's hottest young actress tells RT why supporting homegrown films is important as she talks...
June 20, 2008:
RT Interview: Sienna Miller on Dylan Thomas, G.I. Joe and NottinghamThe bohemian actress on The Edge of Love and her upcoming projects.
What's Hot On RT
Bradley Cooper's Best Movies
Fast & Furious 6 is Certified Fresh
Fast & Furious cars gallery
Blockbusters ranked!
Featured on RT
- Weekly Ketchup: Fox and Marvel Both Courting Quicksilver for Comic Blockbusters 8
- Critics Consensus: Fast & Furious 6 is Certified Fresh 58
- Red Carpet Photos with Vin Diesel, Michelle Rodriguez, Gina Carano and More 0
- Video: The Hangover Part III Cast Interviews 0
- Total Recall: Bradley Cooper's Best Movies 47
- Parental Guidance: Epic and Beautiful Creatures 2
- Comic Book Movies You Can Watch Online 12
Top Headlines
-
Evan Peters Joins X-Men: Days of Future Past
0
-
Toby Jones Talks Captain America: The Winter Soldier
1
-
The Poltergeist Reboot May Actually Be a Sequel
16
-
Will Forte Promises MacGruber 2
2
-
Universal Plans Timecop Reboot
2
-
Return of the Jedi Turns 30
1
-
Vin Diesel Says Fast & Furious 7 Will Take Place in L.A.
0
Fresh Links
Featured
Star Trek Movies Ranked
HitFix offers their own take on the worst-to-best of the Enterprise crew's cinematic adventures.
Top 10 Star Trek Villains
Rolling Stone unveils the Enterprise's most irksome adversaries.
Celebrity Yearkbook Flashback
We'll bet you never realized how many stars were cheerleaders and high school athletes!
50 Most Classic Movie Moms
In celebration of Mother's Day, TimeOut offers up 50 iconic matriarchs from the big screen.
Weirdest Movie Siblings
From Twins to The Royal Tenenbaums, Moviefone explores cinema's oddest siblings.
Promos
Follow RT on Twitter!
Spice up your feed with hourly Tomatometer updates!
Foreign Titles
- Edge of Love - Was von der Liebe bleibt (DE)
- En el límite del amor (ES)
Then I found out she sang her own songs! Well, color me impressed. Those musical numbers are easily the best parts of the movie. The twisted love...parallelogram is too subtle, too full of wist. There isn't much development on how exactly Vera and Caitlin become besties, what exactly went on between Dylan and Vera, why William becomes so disturbed.