Director: Rob Connolly
Year: 2016
Rated R
Rating: * * 1/2 Stars
Cast: Shaun Benson, Shiloh Fernandez, Joel Kinnaman
Hello all movie lovers. Edge of Winter is my latest review. It's a 2016 release and now that it's 2017, I still tend to write about a few holdovers from the previous year. That's until stuff like Sleepless opens up via January 13th. Anyhow, I wanna talk about "Edge" and my mixed assessment of it. Here's what I came up with:
Edge of Winter concludes very abruptly. You sort of wish for ten more minutes of variably taut screen time. The opening interaction between cast members, feels like 2005's War of the Worlds. The final sequence can't wait for the closing credits to appear fast enough. This vehicle fiercely represents the coming of Joel Kinnaman's finest performance. You don't quite know why he goes perpetual psycho towards "Edge's" final half hour. Nevertheless, I've always thought of his acting style as dry and mundane, with a hint of palatable screen presence. Here, his nerve endings and realistic demur come out. Just think of a more subdued Jack Nicholson from The Shining.
Edge of Winter is kind of like The Grey without wolves. The cold temperatures, the isolation, and the peril that the young actors go through (they play Kinnaman's trouper's kids) will at times, creep you out. This is a well-acted film, a character study, and at times, an evenly-paced thriller to boot.
With so many straight-to-video flicks coming out, "Edge" rises slightly despite the fact that it might be too underdeveloped to garner a recommendation. It has the feel of an independent pic. Then, it eventually veers into Redbox territory with wonted movie poster in tote. At 89 minutes, I thought to myself, what is "Edge's" ultimate conflict or resolution? Furthermore, I was trying to figure out the reason for Kinnaman's Elliot Baker to turn so psychobabble, so off the reservation if you will.
Anyway, Edge of Winter's premise involves an estranged dad watching his young tykes (for a weekend) to the dismay of his snippy ex-wife. They are moving to London and he fears that he'll never see them again. From a circumstanced plot point, daddy and the boys go out in the middle of nowhere to practice rifle shooting. As they try to leave, their truck gets stuck in the snow and they have to survive in a remote cabin until help comes in any form. Rob Connolly's direction here is standard, with intermittent shots of the clouds, the moon, and snowy treetops. "Edge" builds to a decent climax only to slightly go off the rails. The basic gist is this: You think you know your good old pops but guess what, ya don't.
In terms of location, well Edge of Winter was shot in Ontario, Canada. It takes place I'm thinking, in the backwoods of snowy Massachusetts. Heck, that's what the license plates on two propped trucks led me to believe.
In conclusion, Edge of Winter according to its wiki page, is I guess cut from original cloth. There's a murder, an equated level of father dominance, and a scene where two people fall through gleaming ice. Whether its outcome is good or bad, "Edge" is adequate, midday viewing that's nothing to anxiously write home about. With a longer running time, a more morose background story, and an attention to a moviegoer's perceptive acumen, it could have been so much better. Rating: 2 and a half stars.
Written by Jesse Burleson
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