The Edge of Love

Star Review

Rick Burin finds The Edge of Love an enjoyable study of complex human relationships.

Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys) is in London and in a rut, consigned to writing scripts for wartime propaganda films rather than penning verse. He’s riddled with neuroses and frequently drunk – not the best companion for his temperamental wife and their young child. Then tube station vocalist and childhood love Vera (Keira Knightley) walks back into his life. This intriguing premise is fleshed out with an exploration of the relationship that develops between wife and would-be mistress and a second plot strand concerning Vera’s affair with British soldier Cillian Murphy. Director John Maybury uses sound particularly well in the film, conveying the characters’ disorientation as they face war, heartbreak and mental disintegration. Ironically though, the film is at its best when matching Thomas’s poetry to images of wartime Britain, calling to mind Our Country and the other propaganda films Thomas abhorred, if The Edge of Love is to be believed.

Rick Burin on 7th October 2008

View all 8 of Rick Burin’s reviews

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Film Description

Set in rural Wales and 1940s London, this biopic tells the story of the romantic complications that arise between Welsh poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), his young wife Caitlin (Sienna Miller), his first love Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley), and her husband William Killick (Cillian Murphy). Dylan Thomas, having been diverted from active duty in the Second World War and employed by the government to produce propaganda for Whitehall, reconnects with his old flame Vera while working in London. Despite his marriage to the feisty Caitlin, Thomas resumes his passionate relationship with Vera. Unusually, despite being rivals in love, Caitlin and Vera form a strong friendship when they meet, and Caitlin continues to indulge in her own extra-marital entanglements. But Vera's marriage to her devoted admirer William, and the effects of the ongoing drama of World War Two, eventually put paid to the unconventional harmony of the bohemian menage a trois, forcing events to a dramatic and violent denouement.

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DVD Extras

• Looking over the Edge of Love: Interviews with cast & crew
• Audio commentary with director John Maybury and actor Matthew Rhys
• Deleted scenes
• Trailer.

Film Details

Cast

Matthew Rhys, Cillian Murphy, Keira Knightley, Sienna Miller

Technical Details