Marketed as a knee-jerk revenge thriller/comeback vehicle for Mel Gibson, Edge of Darkness proves to be both smarter and thornier than advertised. Adapting the superb 1985 BBC miniseries, it boasts a twisty, steadily deepening plot, sturdy supporting turns by the likes of Ray Winstone and Danny Huston, and a script by The Departed's William Monahan that slathers on the profane Bahston wit.

Opening with a memorably grisly shot, the story follows a granite-willed Boston cop whose daughter comes between him and a shotgun-wielding hit man. Stricken with grief, he begins to implode, until a shadowy government fixer (Winstone) drops hints that he may not have been the target after all. And then the stain starts to spread, as it does in the best detective stories (most notably in the great Kiss Me Deadly, with which this film shares more than a few themes).

Martin Campbell, who directed the original miniseries before moving on to the likes of Casino Royale, continues to solidify his rep as one of the great unheralded action directors, propulsively moving the narrative forward with both a minimum of flash and a genuine air of sorrow. The main attraction, though, is Gibson, who sets aside most of his trademark charisma to reveal a core of pure wounded tenacity. (The film accentuates his newfound underdog status by pitting him against progressively taller and younger adversaries, until he weirdly starts to resemble a pit bull/Bob Hoskins.) With his matinee good looks diminished by age and who knows what else, Gibson is beginning to breathe the same rarefied craggy air of folks like Lee Marvin, Robert Ryan, and Warren Oates: thousand-yard stares, the pain threshold of a fence post, and the potential to go nuclear at the slightest provocation. See the movie; stay off his lawn. recommended