Story Line: Prompted by a fortune teller (Frances Bay) who tells him he's not where he should be, nebbish, middle-age businessman Edmond (William H. Macy) walks out on his wife and lets loose his feelings of anger and frustration on a sleazy nighttime New York and its colorful denizens.
Bottom Line: Edmond is not the erotic thriller that Vivendi is promoting it as. The packaging copy describes it as a "wickedly sexy thriller" about a man "trapped in a twisted game of sex, lies and murder," but this film adaptation of one of playwright David Mamet's earliest efforts is just the opposite: an angry, confrontational drama where the sex and the murder are not for the timid. Macy is at his usual, focused best as he unleashes his spirit on three-card monte players, pimps, pawn shop owners and a couple of women in the sex trade (Mena Suvari, Bai Ling)—all of whom populate an Eighth Ave. Manhattan landscape that was a far more familiar sight in the early '80s. (Ironically, the movie was shot in downtown Los Angeles.) Director Gordon, best known for his splatterific Re-Animator films, does a good job of taking Mamet's trademark sharp dialog and scenarios and efficiently propelling them toward the climax, which finds Edmond's growing anger finally giving way to a feeling of contentment after he is incarcerated. There's a limited audience for Edmond, but those who are fans of Mamet and the talented cast (which also includes Joe Mantegna and Julia Stiles as an ill-fated waitress) should take note of this one.
Color, R (mature themes, violence, language, nudity, sexual situations), 82 min., DVD $26.99