Another special little movie by horror director Stuart Gordon, who inserts a whole lot more drama into 'Edmond' than he usually does - I would guess, because I haven't seen all that much of his older work (of course, I did see his infamous and terrific debut 'Re-animator', and 'Dagon').A total blessing for this film is that William H. Macy agreed to do the lead, you can't go wrong with 'Jerry'! The beautiful female sidekicks (Julia Stiles, Bai Ling, Mena Suvari, Denise Richards, what a quartet!) don't have big parts, but they deliver lots and lots of fun. And let's not forget about the talk at the bar with Joe Mantegna. The story is quite 'simply' that of a man descending step by step into hell one night, but he redeems himself in a special kind of way... I won't tell, just go see. Being an adaptation of a stage play written by David Mamet (which will have helped Macy to take the role, he worked with Mamet many times before, in the theatre and in films), you might have another clue as what to expect, I thought it worked really well as a film.A good 8 out of 10.

Edmond is a film maker's experiment that focuses on dialogue and character at the expense of plot and logic. The themes of societal conformity as well as sex and happiness are explored with varied success and this makes for an overall poor film with some redeeming qualities. This is based off a play of David Mamets', best known for dialogue centered films such as Glengarry Glen Ross, and directed by Stuart Gordon best known for the mediocre Pit and the Pendulum. If a film that is effectively small dialogue filled rants by David Mamet sounds appealing, then this may be your film, but for any casual film watcher this film is a disappointment. William H. Macy plays Edmond a regular 'Joe' who hits a breaking point and journeys on a descent into darkness as he becomes increasingly more sex crazed and violent. Each step is a separate vignette featuring an array of big name actors from Denise Richards to Bai Ling and Bokeem Woodbine, and many lesser known, industry talents such as Jeffery Combs. These actors are sometimes brilliant, but often bad, and rarely are their characters any more than a back drop for William H. Macy. At first I thought the always good Macy was doing a particularly poor job in this film. The character is one of the least likable movie heroes (or anti-heroes) in my memory. He is rude, thoughtless, crass, sexist and racist, and particularly cheap. Some great acting has allowed these characteristics to be likable, but not in Macy's case – Edmond is not endearing or redeemable. However, soon I realized he is actually doing a great job of making Edmond so unlikeable. It is hard to be so despicable. A good comparison would be Michael Douglas in Falling Down. However where we sympathize with Douglas as the world is slowly corrupted around him, Macy is simply a jerk who does not deserve our empathy. We as an audience find it hard to be engaged with Edmond and his fall from sanity is sudden and unrequired. This I am sure is somewhat intentional, but is hard to watch as an audience. The directing is poor, and maybe that is partly the source material, but the loose 'plot' of the movie is severely limited. There are clues and symbols that are left unexplored, and the themes are left unbalanced and unexplored. This movie may be some 3rd year film maker's dream, and may speak to some people who applaud Macy for his acting or Mamet for his brave dialogue, or an array of other actors for their brave performances, but as a film it fails.

Don't be fooled by the A-list cast, writer and director. This is probably the most disgusting, degrading and pointless movie made in the last 10 years. It is vicious, inflammatory and totally lacking in any worth whatsoever. Bill Macy must have been pretty desperate financially to participate in this ugly and hateful mess. I will never look at him the same way again. Judging by this syphilitic pus-bomb masquerading as a film, David Mamet needs to have his head examined. If you want the same effect as watching this turd, go plunge your head into a backed-up toilet. You'll have the same experience and, hey, you'll save yourself two hours.

This was written for Macy, right? Just as he "made" the earlier "Fargo," Macy's mesmerizing performance is the subject of "Edmond." Again he's an Everyman (make that a white Everyman), and again things go from bad to unbelievably bad in just under two hours' time. The movie had me at the edge of my seat throughout -- first because Edmond was speaking his mind in an almost Larry David-type way (albeit without any of the comedy). After the fateful meeting with the fortune teller he's just not gonna get screwed. How ironically it all turns out...The movie is definitely better at the beginning, when it looks like Edmond just possibly could live his life fairly normally while not having to suck up to assholes and jerks. But that all changes when, tellingly, it's a white person who turns up the victim.That's Julia Stiles, who was sublime in "William Shakespeare's Romeo + Juliet", in the puzzling role of the barmaid. Why WAS it she went home with a battered homely man twice her age? That's where the movie starts to get a bit unbelievable. And then when Edmond's pontificating in her apartment, waving his knife around, and she's not even scared. It was at moments like that the movie lost its verisimilitude for me.Though parts of "Edmond" were truly unbelievable, the movie absolutely riveted me from the murder on. I caught this film on the IFC channel and had to stop it a couple of times during Macy's first encounter with his cell mate. I couldn't watch or listen except in doses. But I did manage to see this movie through to its stunning conclusion -- on a bizarrely fascinating note!