Review of Edmond (2006) by Nicolai H — 25 Nov 2008

David Mamet's Edmond is probably more fun on the stage than on film. Still, Edmond is startling, intellectually engaging, and cinematically fresh. William H. Macy fails completely in the lead role, with his nice guy schtick never transforming into the legitimately unhinged fuck I'd been hoping to see; instead, he seemed too heavily trapped within Mamet's frantic dialogue, and never managed to make the free-association surreal thesis on fear, urban dissociation, honesty, violence, and value-judgments seem either spontaneous or actualized.

That the movie is entirely disinterested in the mechanics of the legal system is an enjoyable first: Edmond's inner development is the first and only subject of the film's focus. The ending, while somewhat surprising, is prefigured in Edmond's fear of sucking dick and his hatred of homosexuals and what that means by his own reasoning---"I think we fear what we truly want, don't you agree?" Still, this thread wasn't developed enough for my satisfaction; given the psychology of incarceration and isolation, it remains impossible to fully intuit Edmond's level of fulfillment.

Edmond's ramblings about death & the afterlife in the final scene are painfully rushed--a failed attempt at a moment of existential vulnerability, glossed over by a moment of apparent intimacy as the movie fades out.