Movie Review: 'The Edge of Love'

The Edge of Love is the result of producer Rebekah Gilbertson's search for her roots. She assembles a talented team of crew and actors to tell the story of her grandparents Vera Philips (Keira Knightly) and William Killick (Cillian Murphy), their meeting in war torn London, their relationship with legendary poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys) and his flamboyant, if somewhat tawdry, wife Caitlin Thomas (Sienna Miller) leading to Killick's attempt on Thomas's life.

John Maybury masterfully opens with Knightly soothingly singing "Blue Tahitian Moon" as a tropical scene greets the eye. Distant air raid sirens echoing down tunnels pierce the fantasy world and it dissolves, and the reality of people huddling for comfort in the mass air raid shelters of the London Underground stations unfolds.

Maybury handles the complex relationships between the four main protagonists with great dexterity and, together with Jonathan Freeman's cinematography, evokes the atmosphere of forties London and the movies of that time. Low key lighting, iridescent portraiture, movement through bevelled glass, smoke wreathed rooms and the crackling of tobacco being inhaled over and over produces an almost overwhelming feeling of claustrophobia, as people cling to the hope that they will live through another day.

The brutality of war is likewise deftly handled, marrying the modern approach of realism with the minimalist approach of suggestion, keeping the horror of shell shock as if it were an incomplete memory, shattered by the blast of a doodle bug.

Through all this Knightly and Miller's portrayals of Vera and Caitlin's friendship shine as they find strength and solace from the hope and disenchantment of war and love. A move back home to the Welsh countryside brings a breath of fresh air for them all as Vera, with William's child, awaits the return of her husband from war and a reckoning that will split the friends forever.

Four stars