Cinemas - starting this week - 20/6/08

Jun 20 2008 by Michael Green, Flintshire Chronicle

THE EDGE OF LOVE (15) (All major cinemas)

POOR old Matthew Rhys doesn’t get a look in with this classy British period picture which is dominated by a head to head by two of our finest female stars.

Keira Knightley and Sienna Miller play two women battling it out for the affections of iconic poet Dylan Thomas but they raise their game to such an extent, Rhys’ portrayal of Thomas is massively overshadowed.

Written by playwright Sharman Macdonald – who just happens to be Knightley’s mother – this is a fascinating character study of the relationship that builds between Dylan Thomas’ childhood friend Vera Philips (Knightley) and the poet’s long-suffering wife, played by Miller.

Absorbing though this central pairing is, what makes the film difficult to swallow is just what they see in a frankly unbearably self-obsessed poet whose power over words may have been extraordinary but whose personality – based on this account, at least – was repugnant.

STAR RATING: ***