While I understand that director John Maybury is focusing on a drama in his "The Edge of Love", he's taken some liberties that are both distracting and detracting. The liberties I found to be his fudging and distracting use of color and texture changes for WWII settings in London. If you're trying to make a semi-serious period piece, tweaking the backgrounds to be noir-ish doesn't work. Now that that complaint is out of the way, what works in the movie is actually the 2nd half where Sienna Miller did the best work of the lot of the actors. Indeed she really looks tormented, jealous, but free-spirited in front of the camera. Knightly is satisfactory as are the others Rhys and Murphy. I enjoyed the teasing and flirting of the 2 gals with the Dillon Thomas character, and while the courtroom scenes lacked a sense of gravity or conflict, the movie has a better 2nd half out of the city-setting and pomp. The war scenes feel too obligatory though. Overall, it muddles through.

To really enjoy this movie, I feel it's important to know that MOST, not all, of the events of this movie are real events. Dylan Thomas is a famous poet, most known for "Do Not Go Gentle Into that Good Night". The people are real people, however parts of their "relationships" are not known for sure. When I first watched this movie, I had no idea about any of this, I watched it a second time after researching some of it and it gave me a greater respect for the film. The actors in the movie were great, the script could've used some work though. I would suggest Googling the names Dylan Thomas and William Killick after seeing the moving. You can see some good articles about some of the real events that did happen and are shown or hinted at in the movie, but again I would do that AFTER you watch the movie or you will spoil some of the surprises for yourself. Good Luck!

THE EDGE OF LOVE. I even found the title intriguing. Can the edge of love grow in many strange directions? Does madness live beyond this edge? At times, it feels like the film seems to be missing something. It's hard to describe. It's either that or it's just that sometimes you feel strangely disconnected from the characters, which somehow makes it even more difficult to stop watching and just turn off. You just can't seem to turn away from this private little world in which one man and two women live. John Maybury definitely has his own unique "grammar" in film, which he himself makes fun of along with actor Matthew Rhys in a commentary track which is as much fun as the movie itself.THE EDGE OF LOVE is set in WWII London and Wales, and is based on the life of Welsh poet Dylan Thomas, played to perfection by Rhys, who obviously had tons of fun doing it, capturing the poet's childish yet magnetic vibe. Sienna Miller, an actress who deserves to be known for more than just her personal life splashed in tabloids, plays Dylan's charismatic, sexy yet formidable Irish wife Caitlin with extreme skill.There are other women in Dylan's life, of course, but only one poses any real threat to Caitlin: a Welsh woman named Vera (Keira Knightley), a gorgeous creature who sings cabaret in the underground pubs of London as bombs shake the ground above. Vera is Dylan's childhood friend and "soulmate". The bond between the two is inexplicably vibrant on screen. Again, it's like a private world that you are only ever afforded a glimpse into, yet cannot resist. It's like visiting aliens. Dylan loves Vera passionately, yet he is married to Caitlin, and honestly loves Caitlin too. Caitlin grows to love Vera as a best friend, though she does give Vera fair warning that if she messes with Dylan behind Caitlin's back, there will be hell to pay. It's so bizarre to see these two young women having so much fun together, enjoying each other's companionship while this undercurrent of jealousy seethes. Dylan of course loves the attention of two women at once, but there is this palpable lack of malice. All you feel is this childish wonder in him.Just a tip for those who might be curious: There are no three-way sex scenes or situations other than Dylan loving both his wife and his childhood lover at the very same time, while the three live in the same house.Early in the film, Vera, as much a modern free spirit as Caitlin, meets an English soldier named William (Cillian Murphy) who falls in love with and marries her. Does she return the love? Vera doesn't know. She tells him that only after he comes safely home from fighting overseas will she let him know. He is only gone for a year, give or take, but he has seen enough horror to scar him for life, and William is still so disturbed by the mysterious bond between his wife and Dylan Thomas that what happens next is inevitable. Murphy's acting is top notch, as per usual, and William becomes the one character in this foursome dynamic that you can actually relate to on any level. You can "become" William, and then, again, it's like you're among aliens, childishly innocent and idealistic aliens who are also extremely narcissistic, shameless samplers of everything life has to offer regardless of who gets hurt or destroyed, yet never truly meaning to "hurt" anyone. Theirs is the belief that you can love many people in your life, that you can have be involved sexually with many people without it affecting your capacity to love your spouse. Dylan Thomas has plenty of poetry "groupies". Caitlin also indulges in sex on the side with various men. Again, the only true threat to Caitlin is Vera, if Vera and Dylan sleep together. Because then it "means" something. The threat to William is obvious as well.It is only after Vera has William's baby that she begins to realize that there is something to be said for having someone love you, actually love you, for real, in the "real" world. The dreamy little universe she has shared with Dylan no longer sparkles like it used to, because the unexpected love she feels for the husband she has taken for granted has changed her. Dylan, however is not quite so ready to give up the notion that Vera's heart is his. When Vera reads Dylan his pedigree and tells him that William "makes her real", it redeems her character, defines it. Ultimately, the three-way bond between Dylan and the two women has to be cut. This means the end of the fragile friendship between Vera and Caitlin, but it leads you to ask: Was it really a friendship? Was anything between these three "real"? Or was it all this world of ignorant bliss and sexual freedom?Like this review, THE EDGE OF LOVE is strange and hard to describe. You can call it a highly unusual romance/historic war drama/period piece, very quirky, with memorable visuals and great acting by all four leads. One thing's for sure: it's different.

I'm increasingly aware of two kinds of ordinary narrative. One is simple storytelling. However well done it is, the point is to display a life changed without changing that of the viewer. Another is a powerfully constructed machine designed to fundamentally touch the viewer. It depends both on real shared passion on both sides (maker and viewer) and sharp design.Projects like this try to bridge the profound gap between them. The story itself is linear and uncomplicated. The camera and method are invisible as usual for these. But the subject is a great artist. You surely know he is by his or her fame and in some cases you will have been touched by that artist outside of the story.The power of your experience (or what you imagine could be) is inherited -- or hoped to be.Inetrestingly, I compare this movie to "Nora" and the comparison is striking because the two writers Dylan and Joyce stand rather like the two kinds of movies. Which is most powerful depends on the size of your table, appetite and hunger.I thought "Nora" was far better because it understood better the notion of body and poetry, sex and powerful writing. Women as the sea, as more than a drink but something you immerse in.There is an effective scene here directly addressing the embodied poem and the body itself. And then birth and war. Clear, obvious unaffecting."Nora" on the other hand had a much deeper scene along these lines that I will never forget. It is simply Nora having breakfast and her robe falling open when it shouldn't matter. Because it is Joyce, it burns.Ted's Evaluation -- 1 of 3: You can find something better to do with this part of your life.