Based on the 1985 series that is still regarded as one of the finest pieces of TV drama produced in Britain, and directed by the same director Martin Campbell (now better known for his work on the James Bond series), Edge of Darkness comes laden with expectations as it also marks Mel Gibson’s first lead role in almost a decade. However, from the first days of initial shooting the odds seemed to be stacked against the film with the news that Robert De Niro had been replaced thanks to ‘creative differences’ - surely the most over-used euphemism in Hollywood – and so it comes as no surprise that ultimately the film doesn’t work.

Primarily the problem with Edge of Darkness is that it’s so dour and dreary. Although it’s admirable for a big-budget thriller to attempt to tackle genuinely painful emotions in having Mel Gibson’s character Thomas Craven mourn his daughter whose murder kicks off the plot and the desperate paranoia of her network of friends and acquaintances, it’s actually hard to care as characters are at best drawn with incredibly broad brush-strokes – such as in Craven picturing and conversing with his daughter after her death in a series of clichéd home movie style scenes, or Ray Winstone (replacing De Niro) as a shady government figure with the usual drinking and smoking habits – or at worst come and go in the space of a scene or two, adding nothing to the plot. Similarly, while the original series featured the then quite relevant, and perhaps even unsettling, plot-line based around a nuclear conspiracy, the remake’s attempts to update this seem half-hearted and just muddle things further - indeed it’s hard to care at all about the central issue in the film, thanks to the film’s ‘baddie’ having motivation and reasoning not far removed from the worst Bond villains.

Although the action does step up considerably in the last half an hour or so, and Gibson manages to look suitably pained throughout the proceedings – which considering the vanity of many movie stars marks the film as somewhat unusual – ultimately it’s a case of too little, too late, as the film has thrust the audience not so much into the edge of darkness, but the verge of sleepiness.