This film is ambitious. Suicide-attempt survival is a topic with many dark corners and impenetrable emotions. I laud it for trying. Unfortunately, some parts of the movie had a real paint-by-numbers feel that made it impossible for me to connect to the characters or the story at times. The soundtrack as a stand-alone CD would likely be a fantastic mix for driving or listening, or lots of things. At the same time, the sheer popularity of the tunes makes them distracting and pigeonholes the characters and their feelings into particular contexts. Some of the only cases where this actually worked in favor of the film were when the Pixies and Supergrass showed up. The bright part of the movie, of course, is Cillian Murphy and his performance. In the beginning, he comes across as cocky and self-involved, and only through the much more disturbed Rachel does he realize that his problems aren't as bad as he thought. Their scenes were among the best in the film, but his scenes with Stephen Rea were quite poor. Maybe that's because Rea's characterization of the doctor was a little too real, in that he was too bland to be offensive, but seemed also too detached to be a help. In those scenes, Jonathan Breech comes off as a wise-ass with very little understanding and too much ego, which is perhaps intentional. However, the writing was not strong enough to keep the burden of believability afloat. I kept feeling like the director was in the back, saying, "With more disdain! Wow, you really hate that doctor! Let it show!" Then there's Toby. Cute, sad, and a bit of a blank. Just about anyone could have been cast in the role, which makes it sad that it wasn't an Irishman. Aside from the feeling that at any time the actors might turn to the camera and shout, "Acting!" Jon Lovitz style, it was watchable. Nice cinematography. I wouldn't even call it too sad, though, as the characters didn't come across as people, they came across as actors. Not even the bittersweetness of the orange Popsicle could save that.
Review of On the Edge
