Blunted edge
Shot-in-Canada thriller never really gets going
Some films do a slow burn. And some burn so slowly they risk having their fire go out completely.
Edge of Winter is, alas, of the latter variety. The Sudbury, Ont.-shot film started life as Backcountry, which is also the name of a much better Canadian thriller by Adam MacDonald, about a young couple on a camping trip. You could do a lot worse than track that one down.
In this one, Joel Kinnaman (Suicide Squad’s Rick Flag) stars as Elliot Baker, a down-on-hisluck divorced dude about to spend a weekend with his two children (Tom Holland, Percy Hynes White) while his ex and her new beau go on a cruise. The kids aren’t thrilled to be there, but perk up a bit when he says he’ll teach them how to shoot a rifle.
Into the woods they go, but a minor accident strands them miles from home. They eventually find a cabin in the wilderness, but are forced to share it with a pair of mildly suspicious francophone hunters. (That’s hunters who speak French, by the way; not guys trying to bag a Québécois. Missed opportunity for terror, movie.)
Director and co-writer Rob Connolly tries to keep some tension in the film, but it’s soon abundantly clear that Elliot is freaking out at the thought of losing his children, after they mention that their new dad is moving them to a new city. And it’s not a quiet, sobbing freak-out, though he does that too, if only to show off his range. About the best thing to be said of Edge of Winter is that the actors are all fine; they just don’t have much to work with. The result won’t put viewers at the edge of anything.