It's tricky to accept Gibson as a protagonist at first, because one's latest memories of Gibson are all from the news, and not from his last film (The Singing Detective, 2003). But you're very quickly forced to sympathize with his character, Boston detective Thomas Craven, when his daughter comes home and immediately begins vomiting blood. Before she can get to a hospital and tell her father her secret, she's shot on their porch by a masked gunman, and after a period of zombie-like behavior, Craven is conveniently allowed to stay on the investigation because he's the only one who can figure out who would want him dead. As any of the commercials will tell you, Craven quickly realizes that he was not the target, and begins to delve into his daughter's friends and her work at Northmoor, a government contractor that handles nuclear material. And you don't need to have seen the original BBC mini-series the film is based on to know that the government contractor that handles nuclear material is always the bad guy.

The mystery unravels, but like an episode of Law & Order: Criminal Intent, we also get plenty of time with the bad guys, including company head Jack Bennett (Danny Huston, as evil as ever), Bennett's government liaison Moore (Danny O'Hare) and British national security consultant Jedburgh (Ray Winstone) who may be working for the U.S. government, but also seems to want to help Craven get to the bottom of things. And get to the bottom of things he does. Belying his name, Craven follows leads fearlessly, fighting knife-wielding thugs, openly threatening Bennett and teaching the drivers of a black SUV that Master Blaster runs Bostontown. The movie is grisly, with exit wounds and surprising deaths aplenty, but it's also emotional, as Craven has constant hallucinations of his young daughter throughout the film that leave him emotionally winded.

The director is Martin Campbell, who directed the original miniseries, as well, and recently re-booted the James Bond franchise with the gritty, realistic Casino Royale. Stylistically, the movie feels like that Bond film (and its revenge-driven sequel, Quantum of Solace) -- like an older, more wrinkly Daniel Craig, Craven has a tendency to walk into the bad guy's lair, introduce himself and tell the villain that he's keeping an eye on him. Ill-advised, to say the least. Fans of The Limey and Taken will also enjoy the movie -- cars don't explode, but there are chases and man-vs.-car standoffs, and a bloody finale that leaves the bodies stacked up like cordwood. And while the audience I saw it with laughed every time someone died, there were also some genuinely funny moments amid the tragedies where Craven couldn't help but crack a joke, and his Boston accent (which was fairly consistent, I thought) makes everything slightly funnier. Hopefully, other audiences will be willing to laugh with Gibson, rather than at him.

Will you see Edge of Darkness? If you did, what did you think?