"Edmond," by default, is going to earn comparisons (both positive and negative) to such 'white-guys-at-war-with-the-world' films as "Taxi Driver," "Falling Down," and possibly "Death Wish." As directed by Stuart Gordon (most renowned for his H.P. Lovecraft adaptations), the film is very detached from reality--yet this very detachment is what gives the film its oppressive verisimilitude. David Mamet's bruising script (based on his play) is simultaneously deranged and realistic.
As we observe the characters and the ways they interact, and the way some simply fall out of the film after only a minute or so (Jeffrey Combs' flamboyant flophouse manager; Denise Richards' pushy stripper), we realize that the urban world of "Edmond" is a vacuum, laying out the best and worst for our beleaguered 'hero,' and leaving his decisions to fate alone.
On the strength of an omen, Edmond Burke (William H. Macy) gets his fortune told, with the teller concluding that he's not where he belongs. Taking this prophecy as truth, he quickly walks out on his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) and enters into an urban landscape of crooked card-dealers, murderous pimps, an unlikely sympathizer (Joe Mantegna, who gives a brief yet compelling speech early on that frames the remainder of the film), strip clubs, high-priced hookers ("It's too much," is Edmond's pathetic refrain), and a beacon of hope coming in the form of pure-looking waitress Glenna (a very impressive Julia Stiles).
The irony of Edmond is his white-bread cluelessness in the seedy underbelly of society--there should be something humorous about his attempts to integrate himself into decadence, but Gordon's direction holds any potential comedy at bay. Macy is absolutely brilliant in the role of an upper-class whom we meet as a Tabula Rasa, eventually filled in by his chance encounters (Mantengna's opinions eventually come to reflect his own). When he is vilified by the one person he truly thought understood his position, his sudden savagery comes out of nowhere, but is entirely believable within "Edmond"'s twisted alternate universe.
David Mamet's sharp script has a down-to-earth distinction that fits well with Gordon's interpretation of a world that borders on a bad dream. An uneasiness stirred in my stomach as I watched "Edmond," not out of any physical objection, but the way in which the film steers (sometimes stagey) dramatics into a whole new hybrid of 'horror,' something the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remakes could only dream of achieving.
7.5 out of 10
As we observe the characters and the ways they interact, and the way some simply fall out of the film after only a minute or so (Jeffrey Combs' flamboyant flophouse manager; Denise Richards' pushy stripper), we realize that the urban world of "Edmond" is a vacuum, laying out the best and worst for our beleaguered 'hero,' and leaving his decisions to fate alone.
On the strength of an omen, Edmond Burke (William H. Macy) gets his fortune told, with the teller concluding that he's not where he belongs. Taking this prophecy as truth, he quickly walks out on his wife (Rebecca Pidgeon) and enters into an urban landscape of crooked card-dealers, murderous pimps, an unlikely sympathizer (Joe Mantegna, who gives a brief yet compelling speech early on that frames the remainder of the film), strip clubs, high-priced hookers ("It's too much," is Edmond's pathetic refrain), and a beacon of hope coming in the form of pure-looking waitress Glenna (a very impressive Julia Stiles).
The irony of Edmond is his white-bread cluelessness in the seedy underbelly of society--there should be something humorous about his attempts to integrate himself into decadence, but Gordon's direction holds any potential comedy at bay. Macy is absolutely brilliant in the role of an upper-class whom we meet as a Tabula Rasa, eventually filled in by his chance encounters (Mantengna's opinions eventually come to reflect his own). When he is vilified by the one person he truly thought understood his position, his sudden savagery comes out of nowhere, but is entirely believable within "Edmond"'s twisted alternate universe.
David Mamet's sharp script has a down-to-earth distinction that fits well with Gordon's interpretation of a world that borders on a bad dream. An uneasiness stirred in my stomach as I watched "Edmond," not out of any physical objection, but the way in which the film steers (sometimes stagey) dramatics into a whole new hybrid of 'horror,' something the "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" remakes could only dream of achieving.
7.5 out of 10