The Edge of Love (15)

The Edge of Love charts the life of Welsh poet, genius and rogue, Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys), during the Second World War.

It follows his stormy relationship with the two women in his life: his first love, Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley) and his wife, Caitlin Thomas (Sienna Miller).

The three find themselves in an intense and complicated relationship, which is further confused by Vera’s marriage to the courtly Captain William Killick (Cillian Murphy), whose jealousy of Thomas intensifies into a kind of madness when he comes back from the front.

Vera and Caitlin end up becoming best friends, despite, and perhaps because of, their rivalry for Thomas’ affections.

This relationship, which is pivotal to the film, is hard to believe in. Flashbacks to blissful days spent under a cloudless sky happen too late, right at the end of the film, and should have come earlier to back up the strong bond that is supposed to exist between the two women.

The film is beautifully shot and uses colour cleverly to create atmosphere and a sense of place. But while the inventive camera angles and arty shots are admirable, they sometimes detract from the action and make the plot and the dialogue difficult to follow.

My enduring memory of this film is of a slightly grey, flat and fuzzy film where I felt no strong empathy for any of the characters.

I lost a lot of the dialogue and felt like I needed subtitles. On a plus point, the accents weren’t overdone and Knightley’s was quite believable.

The film had a lot of hype, maybe even more so locally because of its Pembrokeshire connections; part of it was shot in location in Tenby and it starred Hakin twins Leo and Olivia Robertson as Vera and Killick’s baby Rowatt. Maybe I would have enjoyed this film if I hadn’t read so much about it beforehand.

The Edge of Love? I didn’t love it.

RATING: ***

Becky Hotchin