Edge of Madness

Adapted from Alice Munro's short story “A Wilderness Station,” this uneasy mix of mystery and morality tale concerns a frostbitten, very shaken young woman, who stumbles out of the Red River Valley into a Canadian hamlet circa 1851. Annie (Caroline Dhavernas) claims to have murdered her husband, Simon (Brendan Fehr), a brutish boor that flashbacks reveal could just as easily have been killed by his brother George (Corey Sevier), who was in love with Annie and agonized over her routine mistreatment. Loosely framed as an investigation into Annie's guilt or innocence, the film doesn't really work as a whodunit or as a sufficiently explored moral dilemma since Simon is such an ogre that either his wife or brother seemed to have legitimate reasons for whacking him. Definitely optional. (T. Rich)