It's the blitz over WWII London. Nightclub singer Vera Phillips (Keira Knightley) reunites with old flame poet Dylan Thomas (Matthew Rhys). His unstable wife Caitlin Macnamara (Sienna Miller) joins them. British officer William Killick (Cillian Murphy) is taken with Vera. He eventually gets her to marry him. He leaves for war and she discovers that she's pregnant. She joins Dylan's family in Wales seaside homes. The style leaves the movie feeling artificial. The problem is that it infects the characters' overwrought romances. Everything and everyone feels fake. In the first half, it's hard to watch these great actors putting down big emotional scenes that ultimately don't work. Leaving London does help to strip the movie of its glossy unreality. It allows the emotions to gain true weight. The second half is better but it's not quite enough.

While I understand that director John Maybury is focusing on a drama in his "The Edge of Love", he's taken some liberties that are both distracting and detracting. The liberties I found to be his fudging and distracting use of color and texture changes for WWII settings in London. If you're trying to make a semi-serious period piece, tweaking the backgrounds to be noir-ish doesn't work. Now that that complaint is out of the way, what works in the movie is actually the 2nd half where Sienna Miller did the best work of the lot of the actors. Indeed she really looks tormented, jealous, but free-spirited in front of the camera. Knightly is satisfactory as are the others Rhys and Murphy. I enjoyed the teasing and flirting of the 2 gals with the Dillon Thomas character, and while the courtroom scenes lacked a sense of gravity or conflict, the movie has a better 2nd half out of the city-setting and pomp. The war scenes feel too obligatory though. Overall, it muddles through.

Although I am very familiar with poet Dylan Thomas, I know nothing of his life. Whatever his life and specifically his marriage involved, I would imagine that The Edge of Love (based on the novel) manipulates things a bit, but unless you are a historian or a poet, who cares.The movie is less about Thomas and more focused on the two most important women in his life. One is his wife Kathrine, and the other is Vera who was his first love. One romantic night on the beach as youths is something that both have tried to put behind them but cannot, now grown up they are good friends. I forgot to mention that this is set during the war. Vera becomes engaged to Captain Will Killing who he gets her pregnant and leaves for war. While he is away, Vera starts to fall for Thomas again, and Kathrine has fallen out of love with him. She is also carrying another man's child. Things get even more emotionally complex when Capt Killig returnsAs you can see, it is a very soap operatic plot, and it takes shape in a fairy drab slow manner, with perhaps one too many sequences of sappy dialogue. But all is not lost yet. For a non- Hollywood production, I think that the Edge of Love is about as stylish a picture as one can get. It is certainly more dimensional and intelligent than about 90% of contemporary romances, Hollywood production or not. Some of it has to do with being set during the war, which sets up emotional conflict that feels more convincing and less artificial, a bit like Atonement. this one features acting and cinematography of equal talent to Joe Wright's Oscar nominee, but it is in far greater need for stable pacing and progression. Things are okay at the start and finish, but the middle section is where your attention span may be tested, unless you are deeply and profoundly rooted in the story. I doubt if The Edge of Love will have that kind of an effect on the viewer, but is a good film to check. it might even make a good date night movie, considering it is so much smarter than the chick flicks that boyfriends are forced to endure today.

Dylan Thomas was a poet from Wales. I had heard of him, but knew nothing of him, nor his work. That he died, at age 39 while on a USA tour, was a surprise. In general I have a very low opinion of poets who simply view their vocation in life as a poet. So to me Dylan Thomas was not a productive member of society. When I was 20 and in college 43 years ago I wrote this poem, and it sums up my feeling:"To write a poem is hard indeed, agreed? <> To think great thoughts, a might task, <> So why should I presume to ask, <> Simple folk my simple poem to read?"But all that aside, I enjoyed this movie. The three main actors created interesting roles. The movie is based on real people, but I gather that most of the situations and dialog are fictional.Keira Knightley is Vera Phillips, friends with Dylan Thomas from their youth. Even though he eventually marries someone else, he never seems to lose his fascination with Vera, who aspires to be a professional singer.The movie is set during the war in the 1940s and some scenes are of Vera singing to huddled Londoners seeking shelter in the tunnels below the city. To her credit Knightly does all her own singing. Matthew Rhys is Dylan Thomas and Sienna Miller is his wife Caitlin MacNamara.