Overview: After visiting a fortune teller, Edmond realizes his life is not the one he desires. He decides to flee his previous existence and pursue a new life.

Edmond meets a man in a bar who gives his advice that launches a series of mishaps that ultimately guide him through the search for his humanity.

From writer David Mamet (Glengarry Glen Ross) and director Stuart Gordon (Re-Animator) and featuring an all-star cast that includes William H. Macy (Fargo), Joe Mantegna (House of Games), Mena Suvari (American Beauty), Denise Richards (Starship Troopers), Bokeem Woodbine (Queen & Slim) and Julia Stiles (The Bourne Identity).

Blu-ray Verdict: Prepare to be unnerved and racked to the very fabric of your soul. Re-Animator director Stuart Gordon has helmed a powerful, provocative film entitled Edmond with William H. Macy, Denise Richards, Julia Stiles, and a line-up of other familiar faces.

The title character is a 47-year old white businessman that has a nervous breakdown and embarks on the odyssey of a lifetime. He abandons his wife because after they argue about an antique lamp being broken because he claims that she no longer turns him on either spiritually or sexually and he descends into a Dante-esque inferno of whores, pimps, pawnbrokers, thieves, and murderers.

Imagine the vintage Michael Douglas movie Falling Down crossed with the Robert DeNiro thriller Taxi Driver, and you’ll have an idea, but what Edmond delivers in its mere 82 minutes will blow your mind!

The issue of racism gets batted about like a tennis ball until you wonder if under all of the leading character’s racist statements that he really loves African-Americans and is a closet homosexual.

When the movie starts, Edmond (William H. Macy) learns that his boss has rescheduled a meeting with him after the weekend on Monday at 1:15pm. As Edmond heads home, he passes a storefront business whose address matches the time of his future appointment with his boss and enters on a whim.

A wizened, gray-haired, old woman (Frances Bay) reads Tarot cards and advises him the he does not belong. Consequently, after he eats diner at home, Edmond abandons his sexy wife (Rebecca Pigdeon) and heads off for a drink at a bar.

Everything that can go wrong for Edmond does, and he endures a 180 change of character. The profundity, violence, racism, and philosophizing is top drawer stuff courtesy of Chicago playwright David Mamet who wrote The Untouchables as well as the CBS-TV series The Unit.

Believe me, you’ve never seen the likes of Edmond. This was NOT a mainstream movie and it is often quite offensive because it peels back layers and layers of hate and hypocrisy.

One thing that Edmond is not is predictable and formulaic. Director Stuart Gordon usually specializes in colorful, over-the-top, low budget horror schlock, but Edmond is a movie where performances are special effects.

The dialogue is typically Mamet with its poetic repetition that might drive some people up the wall. Edmond is guaranteed to make you forget any movie that you saw before it and it will make most movies after you see it seem like Diet Coke for the mindless!

In short, I cannot recommend it highly enough, but at the same time, it is for people who don’t travel in the Hollywood rut! Is that you?! This is a Widescreen Presentation (1.85:1) enhanced for 16x9 TVs that comes with the Special Features of:

Feature commentary by writer David Mamet
Feature commentary by director Stuart Gordon, producer Duffy Hecht, and actor/producer Lionel Mark Smith
Anatomy of a Thriller featurette
Deleted Scenes
Theatrical Trailer

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