Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

A lot of perfectly good film show their cards early, establish a unique premise and let the audience explore a topic at a leisurely pace, without much in terms of surprise. this film is not one of those films.

I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Two brothers. A young woman. A house far from civilization. A murder. And the verdict. Ambiguous, far from justice, fragile and behind rules. A love story. And common sacrifice. A body as frontier between past and future. And present as desert isle. The axis - Caroline Dhavernas look. Axis of story, images, questions about innocence and guilty, nuances of fear and hope and ash of a building who must be, in strange form, the home.A movie as a land in rain. The storm, the wed ground, lightning, few thunders, rainbow, fresh air ,after cried. Mixture of mystery and beauty. A flash tale in which sensitivity and hidden expectations are seeds of passing existences.

A beautiful story on the age-old themes: who is guilty on a crime? Does true innocence exist? Too bad the outcome spoils a lot by being a bit infantile. I felt it didn't do justice to the movie as a whole.The scenery of Canadian life in the 19th century is really captivating and draws you as a viewer into its raw atmosphere. You really feel the battle against the elements as the characters are faced against it. Their harsh lives make it practically unbearable to keep a steady pace in life, let alone to have a decent love life. The acting is superb, with a huge extra plus for Caroline Dhavernes as the gorgeous but natural protagonist.

The acting in this film is superior, beginning with the multi talented Caroline Dhavernas, she steals this film with her electrifying performance and ethereal beauty. Ms. Dhavernas loses herself in this role, and brings such raw emotion to her character that one rarely sees from a young actress.Paul Johansson was marvelous as well, portraying the detective attempting to unravel Caroline's tale of murder and adultery.You'll utterly hate Brendan Fehr's character, he was all kinds of evil and vile, and deserved the end he came to. He gives the Irish accent a valiant effort, but wasn't that convincing with it, although that doesn't tarnish his performance at all.I highly recommend this film to anybody who desires to watch a good character study. You can't help but care for Caroline's character, and will anxiously await how this film comes together at the end.

I very much enjoyed Caroline Dhavernas' performance in the failed series Wonderfalls, so I thought I would purchase the Edge of Madness DVD, and view some of her other work. Besides Wonderfalls, I had only previously seen her in the comedy Out Cold, and wanted to see her in a serious work. However, I was ultimately disappointed by the film, and would not recommend it.Firstly, as I knew some background on Caroline Dhavernas, and her character was of French background in the film, I assumed the film took place somewhere in Canada. However, the film never makes this clear, and simply announces the location as "Red River Valley." Any Canadian worth their salt might know that this is located in the province of Manitoba, but as an American, I was not familiar with it, and would have preferred greater clarity, e.g. "Red River Valley, Manitoba." I suppose the film's producers never expected many people outside of Canada to take interest in the film, and didn't feel they needed to clarify, which seems somewhat unprofessional.At any rate, the film starts promisingly, and it seems the viewer is in for a good mystery. However, throughout the entire film, we're fed large blocks of Caroline Dhavernas' character's flashbacks. A truly compelling mystery leaves the viewer in the dark until the very end. However, this film keeps its viewers remarkably well-informed from beginning to end, making the final details of the story less-than-shocking. When the audience knows more than the film's investigating constable the entire time, it's difficult to even classify this film as a mystery.A further hindrance to the enjoyment of the film was the extraordinarily thick Scottish accents two of the main characters have. I found myself frequently having to rewind the film, and even activate the English subtitles, just to get key pieces of dialogue in the movie. At some points, I even let the muddled lines go, too frustrated to rewind. There's a fine line between authentic and unintelligible, and if being the first means being the latter, I feel that it's okay to sacrifice a little sliver of authenticity for the sake of the viewer's comprehension. Fortunately, Ms. Dhavernas' French accent and the standard North American accents of the rest of the cast came through loud and clear.The ending was quite muddled, leaving me without much of a sense of closure, justice or satisfaction. It left me wondering if the characters had really grown or learnt anything throughout the entire film, and if it really did justice to the film's themes. Also, the characters' relationships really weren't well-developed in my opinion, and needed more depth.All this being said, the film's acting was excellent. Caroline Dhavernas did her best with a bad script, and her performance was quite moving and mature. Brendan Fehr, of the canceled series Roswell, proves that he can also handle a serious role, and the rest of the cast does adequate work. However, even such superb acting cannot salvage an inherently ill-conceived script.In conclusion, Edge of Madness is an intelligent, well-acted film, but written and formatted poorly, and often confusing. If you're a die-hard Caroline Dhavernas fan, rent it just for the heck of it, but if not, don't waste your money on a purchase or even a rental. It's a waste of your time and a waste of good talent.