Download The Edge of Love movie

The Edge of Love is a 2008 John Maybury film starring Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller, Cillian Murphy and Matthew Rhys from a script by Sharman Macdonald, Knightley's mother.[2] Originally titled The Best Time of Our Lives, the story concerns the famous Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (played by Rhys), his wife Caitlin MacNamara (played by Miller) and their married friends, the Killicks (played by Knightley and Murphy). It was the official selection at the Edinburgh International Film Festival.

The story is based loosely on real events and people. During World War II, Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley) runs into her first love, charismatic Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), and their feelings for each other are renewed, despite that Dylan is now married to the spirited Caitlin MacNamara (Sienna Miller). Despite their rivalry, the two women become friends and the trio have happy times together. When Vera marries soldier William Killick (Cillian Murphy), Dylan becomes jealous at the addition of him to the group, and Caitlin notices. But William is soon deployed abroad, and the remaining trio moves to the Welsh countryside, where Vera's feelings for Dylan intensify. When William comes home from the war, his jealousy, compounded by his traumatic experiences and Vera's use of William's pay to aid the Thomases, explodes and he shoots up the house of the Dylan and his family. However, despite Dylan's perjury, William is found innocent of attempted murder. The film closes with the Thomas family leaving their Welsh home and Caitlin parting with Vera.[3]

Cast

Production

Filming began in 2007. Lindsay Lohan was attached to star in early 2007, but dropped out in late April 2007, just before filming was to begin.[4] Miller joined the project on 23 April 2007.[5] When Lohan was attached to star, she told MTV about the storyline, "Keira is older than me, but she kind of has a mysterious relationship with my lover and there's somewhat of a lesbian undertone."[6] Screenwriter Macdonald, however, said there is no lesbian storyline.[7]

Distribution

The film made its world premiere opening the Edinburgh Film Festival on 18 June 2008. It was released in London and Dublin two days later, with a Welsh premiere taking place in Swansea (the birth place of Dylan Thomas) on the same night, to be attended by Matthew Rhys. A national release follows in the UK and Ireland on 27 June 2008.[1] An exhibition of costumes, scripts and props from the film is on display at the Dylan Thomas Centre in Swansea until September.

Critical reaction

As of 21 August 2008, the review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes reported that 38% of critics gave the film positive reviews, based on 45 reviews.[8] The Hollywood Reporter critic Ray Bennett commented that the Edge of Love is a "wonderfully atmospheric tale of love and war" and stated about Knightley and Miller that; "the film belongs to the women, with Knightley going from strength to strength (and showing she can sing!) and Miller again proving that she has everything it takes to be a major movie star."[9]

Mark Kermode described the film as "inert" and said that the script was "flawed but not without some form of admirable merit".[10] The Independent felt that "Maybury's stylisation makes the film more interesting than it would have been if directed by your average British journeyman, but it finally adds up to earnest heritage romance."[11]

Soundtrack

The Edge Of Love soundtrack by Angelo Badalamenti includes performances by lead singers Patrick Wolf, Siouxsie and Beth Rowley. Siouxsie performs the second version of the title track and Keira Knightley sings on four tracks.

The composer performed the soundtrack live with Siouxsie and Beth Rowley in Ghent, at the World Soundtrack Awards, in October 2008.[12]

Track Listing

1. "Lovers Lie Abed"
2. "Overture/Blue Tahitian Moon"
3. "Underground Shelter"
4. "Hang Out The Stars In Indiana"
5. "After The Bombing/Hang Out The Stars In Indiana"
6. "A Stranger Has Come"
7. "Fire To The Stars"
8. "Careless Talk"
9. "Careless Love"
10. "Love Me"
11. "Careless Talk"
12. "Drifting And Dreaming"
13. "Home Movies"
14. "Under Fire"
15. "Maybe It's Because I Love You Too Much"
16. "Vera Begs Dylan"
17. "Vera's Theme"
18. "Holding Rowatt"
19. "Careless Love"
20. "Caitlin's Theme"
21. "Careless Love"

25 Comments »

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A story of flawed but charming human beings

Given that Dylan Thomas is an icon of modern Anglophone poetry I
expected a movie that would be prone to a hagiography of the subject.
On the contrary the poet is presented as sexually irresponsible, a
drunkard, a bad father, a lier and a hypocrite and perhaps a coward. Of
course one could argue that all those things are an advantage when some
one is an artist and especially a poet since one of the purposes of art
is to subvert the standards of conventional morality but still I do not
thing that a positive role model could crop up from such a bundle of
personality traits. Any way I found the other male hero of the story
Captain Cillic a more endearing character. The two female roles were
played by actresses Knigtley and Miller and were truly charming
especially the first when she performed songs in slim outfit to inspire
bombarded Londoners during WW2. Another good point is the role that
sexual jealousy plays even in relatively progressive milieus that think
that age-old conventions can easily be surpassed.The atmosphere of the
Blitz was also convincing as well as the portrayal of the distinct
outlooks among people who have experienced war as opposed to those who
talk about it theorizing on it's possible political outcomes.I think
one would recommend such a movie.

george karpouzas - 17 March 2009

An intense and strangely beautiful film…

Where would Hollywood have been without Fredric March as Robert
Browning or Dennis Price as Lord Byron, famous lovers in their day?
Even an actor as normally straitlaced as Michael Redgrave once brought
some moody charm to a portrayal of W.B. Yeats. Writers' lives are an
endless source of inspiration.But of all poets it was Dylan Thomas, the roistering, free-loving
Welshman who enjoyed a pint or two (and drank himself to death in New
York at the age of 39), who was closest in spirit to the film industry.
During World War II, he produced scripts for British propaganda
documentaries. He even wrote the screenplay of a vapid melodrama called
The Three Weird Sisters, in which three old maids in a Welsh village
plot the murder of their rich half-brother. All that is now forgiven.In John Maybury's The Edge of Love, Thomas is played by the Welsh actor
Matthew Rhys. It's not a full-scale biopic. The film covers four years
in the poet's life during World War II, when he lived with two women:
his wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller) and a former lover Vera Phillips
(Keira Knightley), whom he met again by chance during the war. It seems
he loved them both. The relationship of these extraordinary women — to
Thomas and to each other — is at the heart of Maybury's absorbing
film.How it came to be made is a story almost as remarkable as that of the
lovers themselves. Rebekah Gilbertson, the film's producer, is the
granddaughter of Vera Phillips and William Killick. William, a war hero
(played in the film by Cillian Murphy), married Vera while she was
still in love with the poet. Gilbertson was inspired to make the film
when she discovered a book about her grandparents, Dylan Thomas: A
Farm, Two Mansions and Bungalow, by David Thomas, describing their
tangled lives. Sharman Macdonald, who wrote the screenplay, is the
mother of Knightley. The part requires Knightley to sing, and her
mother included songs especially for her. Surely no film with such
felicitous family connections deserves to do other than succeed.We begin in London during the Blitz. Bombs are falling, sirens are
wailing, and Phillips is singing to sheltering crowds in an underground
Tube station. In a pub, by chance, she meets Thomas and discovers after
all these years that he has a wife and child. Phillips and Caitlin form
a friendship untroubled by jealousy or rancour and are soon sharing
beds and bathtubs, listening to Thomas read his poems, exchanging
intimate secrets and smoking their heads off, as everyone did in
wartime. Caitlin turns out to be more experienced in the ways of the
world ("My first was Augustus John, he seduced me when I was 15"). But
it's the refined and soulful Phillips who stirs Thomas's deepest
responses and eventually succumbs to his charms. In the meantime, she
has reluctantly married Killick, who has seen her in the Tube station
and been instantly captivated by her beauty (if not her singing).It is an intense and strangely beautiful film, though Thomas himself
may be its least impressive character. He is best remembered for Under
Milk Wood, his verse radio play about a day in the life of the mythical
Welsh village of Llareggub, whose name spelt backwards was not
something polite English teachers drew attention to. I once had a vinyl
recording of Richard Burton reading the poem (he appeared in a film of
Under Milk Wood in 1971), and I've never forgotten the creamy,
seductive quality of his voice. The legendary charisma, the magnetism
of the man, is something I missed in Rhys's performance. Thomas comes
across as a strangely pallid, even secondary, figure compared with the
women in his life.In his previous film, Love Is the Devil, Maybury explored the turbulent
life of painter Francis Bacon and his sadomasochistic relationship with
his lover and model, George Dyer. The Edge of Love seems to me a richer
and more satisfying film. If you ask what insights it offers into the
springs of Thomas's creative inspiration, I would have to say
Llareggub. But as an insight into his egotism, his smouldering moods
and his general indifference to the feelings of others, it is
wonderfully sad and revealing.Thomas had a good war, boozing and writing while other men (including
Killick) were being traumatised by the horrors of battle. In one scene
near the end, Thomas's behaviour towards his friends seems unforgivably
callous. But this is not, after all, Thomas's film. Murphy gives us a
magnificent study in doomed passion and the emotional debilitation of
war. Miller is charming and pathetic as the wife. And Knightley looks
almost too exquisitely delicate to be real (as she did in Pride and
Prejudice). But this is probably her finest performance. And in every
respect the film is worthy of her.

bartekfm from Poland - 8 March 2009

Moments of Cinematic Beauty

Naturally, before watching this film, ones expectations are high. The
tale of Dylan Thomas and his lovers promises to be exhilarating. The
stars used in the production hold high promise. However the result is
different. There is just something not quite right about this film.Whilst it manages to capture the viewer with moments of cinematic
beauty, The Edge of Love fails to entice. In some scenes the
cinematography is perfect. The set design and costume cannot be
faulted. The glamour and horror of the era are portrayed perfectly. But
the story itself does not piece together. The sudden friendship of the
two women seems too soon and lacking in explanation. The characters
have little depth and I felt no real sympathy for any of them. It
almost seems as if several crucial scenes were omitted.The film itself is fairly disappointing, but perhaps worth watching for
the moments when everything comes together because when this happens
the film is stunning.

Chinarose77 from United Kingdom - 19 February 2009

Deserves a closer look

This film flopped miserably in the UK, and it didn't deserve to. The
trailer of this film is slightly misleading, and I guess it mislead
critics and audiences into thinking it was "Atonement: Part 2". While
the film was marketed that way to capitalise on the earlier success of
Joe Wright's BAFTA-winning film, it's very different in tone. It
focuses on an imagination of sorts of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas' life
during the Second World War as the writer of propaganda films for the
war effort, and his subsequent return to Wales. Director John Maybury
quickly introduces Dylan's (Matthew Ryhs) childhood sweetheart Vera
Phillips, played by Keira Knightley. She was Dylan's first love in
their homeland, but the moment has passed, and singer Vera only wants
it as a beautiful memory. Or does she? Vera unexpectedly strikes up a
close bond with the other woman in Dylan's life, "Queen of Ireland,
love of my life, mother of my child" Caitlin Thomas (Sienna Miller).
The three form a sort of menage a trois in war-struck London, but Vera
then falls for a dashing soldier, William Killick (Cillian Murphy).
They quickly marry, with Killick leaving for War. A frightened Vera
convinces the Thomas' to return witb her to Wales, but the three are
faced with the realism of the birth of Vera's child, William's jealousy
and shell-shock after returning home, and Caitlin realising she cannot
share Dylan with her best friend.Filmed on a low budget, this is more of a mood piece than anything
else. It works best as a realisation that some memories and feelings
need to be treasured but not renewed. The performance of Sienna Miller
is particularly excrellent (unfortunately the paparazzi nonsense
detracts from the fact thats she's quite a talent), and Knightley and
Murphy are once again very good. The let-down is Rhys as Dylan, who,
while the Welsh poet himself was no bed of roses, lacks charisma and
makes us wonder what these women see in Dylan. The writing is very
choppy, some beautiful moments interspersed with sloppiness. It's
certainly worth watching, however.

Jem Odewahn from Australia - 8 February 2009

A visceral description of human smallness. And nothing new.

Can't grade this very well, because I can't say I liked it. But it is
the story that bothered me, not the realization of the film. The
acting, directing, atmosphere, music were all good. It's just that
after you see a bunch of people doing things you can't truly relate to,
the movie ends. It is educational in the way that it shows the horrors
of war as seen from home and the way feelings don't need to make any
sense at all and still be strong, but that's about it.The plot covers a period of a few years in which the poet Dylan Thomas
is taken under the roof of a former ex-girlfriend. He is married,
brings his wife and later the kid, while the ex (Knightley) marries
some other guy. But the tension is there, Dylan is a self obsessed jerk
and the new husband comes back home from the war with a slight case of
PTSD. Add in some pretty temperamental characters and you have your
hands full.Bottom line: you have to be "in the mood" to like this film. The hard
part is defining this mood. I don't think I've ever been in it yet.
Ever. So it is probably better watched by adults with a grasp on weird
complex human behaviour and maybe a curiosity about Dylan Thomas.

siderite from Romania - 30 November 2008

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