Edmond Burke is a normal working man who's just another faceless person in the faceless grey mass. One day the rescheduling of a business appointment makes him instead go and see a fortune-teller who tells him that he's not where he's supposed to be. This makes him go home and tell his wife that he is gonna go out to never come back, and so he heads out into the seedy streets of New York at night. He ends up at a bar, and meets a man there who he has an interesting conversation with, and is given a card to a club where he can get laid. From there on, Edmond wanders the dark night in a sea of prostitutes, seedy bars, nightclubs, robbers and more. His journey eventually leads to insanity, and his life takes a turn for the worst.
We're all aware of how the choises we make can make our lifes take different turns, and lead us into other and new paths, sometimes good, but sometimes bad. Usually, most of the choises we make are kinda small though, and even if they have some impact on our lifes, they do not change our lifes completely. It's also quite common with people who all of a sudden snap, who has had stuff inside of them for a long time, and one day it all boils over. Watching Edmond kinda made me think about the movie Falling Down, starring Michael Douglas. I'm not saying that Edmond is a clone or anything, but they have one major thing in-common, and that is that you one day realize that you're not at all happy with your present situation/existence, and so you turn your life around completely, hoping for things to improve.
When Edmond one day come to realize that he's not happy with his situation, his life takes a drastic turn into a more dangerous existence. After leaving his wife, he soon finds himself on the backside of society, trying to get laid, but fails miserably at doing so for a while, and faces one let-down after another. Eventually he totally snaps when being robbed, and from there on, things just keep getting worse. But saying that things keep getting worse is not entirely true, since Edmond actually feels the total opposite. He feels more alive than ever, and by feeling that way, it shortly after lands him in bed with Julia Stiles. But happiness doesn't last for long, and as more and more people keep disappointing Edmond, his situation only keeps getting worse by the moment.
 
The movie has its fair share of sleaze in it, and it's actually a bit depressing to see at times. Even though you're only watching a film, what you see is there for real as well, and this at times serves as a reminder of how parts of society looks like. I'm talking about all this stuff that has to do with sex, all the prostitutes, people trying to rip you off, punks, scum, and so on, and so forth. And even though Edmond doesn't seem to make the smartest decisions at times as well as you don't feel total sympathy for the guy in all the different situations he finds himself in, you're still bound to feel a bit sorry for they guy and for some things that happens to him.
Greatest thing with a movie like this is the fact that anything can happen. This guy wants to change his life completely, wants to get laid (without over-paying), and eventually doesn't feel too bad after killing some one. Then comes the regrets, but that's a different story. The fact is that a lot of flicks are pretty narrow so to speak. They stick to one category, and stays in that category, and do what they're expected to do. And since we've seen that more than a number of times, it's nice with a flick that feels like it can be anything if you know what I mean. If you don't, watch Edmond and maybe you will, in any case, the movie's definitely worth a watch.
The cast is really good with William H. Macy of course standing out as Edmond, delivering a great performance. I quite recently saw the remake of The Omen and complained a bit about Julia Stiles being in it. She's in this one as well, and while not giving a bad performance, I still feel, just like with The Omen, that they could've chosen someone else for the job. We even get to see Jeffrey Combs (Re-Animator) playing a role as the receptionist at some sleazy motel, as well as Mena Suvari and Denise Richards playing prostitutes. There's also a few other good apperances, but you'll see it when you see the movie, so enough about that.
Directed by Stuart Gordon who gave us the Re-Animator trilogy, Edmond is not a horror movie per se, but might still work for an horror audience. It's a great drama that leans towards being a thriller as well, that makes you think, and that has a great story to tell. Some of the dialogue in the movie is great, while some feels like the things you would say and consider to be amazing statements when being high on pot. However you may see things, I can say that Edmond is definitely a movie worth seeing. Truly recommended.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2005
DIRECTOR: Stuart Gordon
WRITING CREDITS: David Mamet
GENRE: Drama, Thriller
CAST: William H. Macy, Julia Stiles, Joe Mantegna
COUNTRY: USA
RUNTIME: 82 min
RATING: 9/10
Edmond Website/IMDB Click here
Edmond Trailer Click here
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