|
"The Edge:" Grin and bear it
September 25, 1997
Web posted at: 11:22 p.m. EDT (0322 GMT)From Movie Reviewer Paul Tatara
(CNN) -- If you have any kind of life to speak of, it's probably never occurred to you that it might be fun to watch Anthony Hopkins get chased through the woods by an irate kodiak bear. I know I've never considered it, but that's exactly what happens (several times) in "The Edge," and, believe it or not, it's one of the coolest things I've seen at the movies this year.
But this isn't just any old bear. "Mr. Heavy Subject Matter," David Mamet, wrote the screenplay, so what we have here is a metaphorical kodiak bear. I'm not quite sure what the metaphor is, mind you, but it makes me giggle to think that I'm about to try to figure it out.
Hopkins plays a world-famous billionaire named Charles Morse. Morse is married to Mickey, a world-famous supermodel played by Elle MacPherson, who radiates her Elle-ness for 15 minutes, then disappears from the movie.
Morse, for no apparent reason, has accompanied his wife and a fashion magazine staff to the outer regions of Alaska for a photo shoot. Robert, the cocky photographer, is played (with his usual self-aware sense of humor) by Alec Baldwin.
Now, if you're Anthony Hopkins, and you're married to Elle MacPherson, you're probably going to be wondering if she's just hanging around for the money, and that's exactly what has Charles on edge throughout the shoot.
He just knows that good-looking Robert is hoping to get his paws on even-better-looking Mickey, but, eventually, the movie is about a kodiak bear hoping to get his paws on Charles and Robert, regardless of how they look. Mickey stays at the cabin, and, almost certainly, applies cold cream and does sit-ups.
This all comes about because a small plane that Charles, Robert, and Robert's assistant, Stephen (Harold Perrineau Jr.), are flying in hits a flock of birds and the engine gets all clogged up with ... um ... bird parts. This is a terrifying, expertly shot sequence as the plane fills up with bird blood and feathers, and barrels down into an icy river.
Director Lee Tamahori manages to present the wilderness as simultaneously beautiful and horrifying. The precedent for this kind of thing is, of course, John Boorman's "Deliverance," but "The Edge" has very little of that movie's near-continuous nerve-frying sense of paranoia.
Obviously, you're paranoid if you're stuck in the middle of a snow-covered nowhere with a bear on your trail, but Mamet likes to take little breaks in the sweat-fest to let his characters complain and pointedly mock each other. It's one wacky approach to expanding on this set-up, and I was never exactly sure what kind of movie I was watching. Let me make it clear that that's a compliment.
The key to the story now is that Charles, as Mickey says early in the movie, "knows everything." Mamet has always shown a weakness for having his characters hold up placards announcing the basic points of his scripts, so I wasn't wrong when I heard my brain go "bing" as Hopkins said, "I seem to retain all these facts, but putting them to use is another matter."
It turns out that Charles doesn't know "everything," although from where a supermodel is sitting it might look that way. He does, however, know how to make a compass out of a leaf and a paper clip, how to make a squirrel trap out of sticks, and how to start a fire by using a piece of ice as a magnifying glass. Hopkins won't win an Oscar for this one, but he may very well be eligible for a merit badge. I was really disappointed that he didn't whip up some smores.
Not surprisingly, Perrineau's character isn't around for long. (I wonÕt describe what happens to him, but suffice it to say that someone should have told him not to feed the bear ... especially considering they don't have any food on them.)
That leaves Charles and Robert, neither of whom trust each other because they both have the hots for the same woman. Robert quickly comes to understand, however, that if he's ever going to make it out of this situation alive, he had better listen to what Charles has to say. High-level fashion photographers do not know how to make compasses out of paper clips. Coke straws out of $20 bills, maybe, but not compasses out of paper clips.
Then there's the bear. There is a truly bizarre tone to the way Mamet handles this story. The bear shows up so often you can just about set your watch by him, and a couple of times he lumbers around like he's a fat guy trying to get out of a recliner. It's almost like Hopkins and Baldwin are being pursued by Mickey Rourke.
Then, out of nowhere, a scene will pop up that scares the bejeebies out of you. At one point, the bear is tearing out after Hopkins, never mind that there are tons of small trees blocking his route. He just runs right through them, snapping them like twigs. The audience was laughing and screaming at the same time.
This is a popcorn movie starring a matinee idol and a man who has been knighted by the queen. That in itself is enough to make you giddy. Some of the scenes, especially in the early going, are pretty poorly written, and Hopkins doing his Mr. Wizard routine is so ridiculous sometimes it has to be intentional, but Mamet is definitely up to something more than your average action movie. Or, should I say, he's smarter than your average bear.
So here's my guess on the significance of that bear. It seems to me that Hopkins and Baldwin are being hunted by the male predatory instinct. The bear is their mutual hankering for Elle MacPherson and her slinky silk nightgowns. And it's comin' to get 'em. Suddenly, these two guys know what it's like to walk down the street and have construction workers whistle and a make pea-brained innuendoes, except that in this case, the construction worker is looking to tear their heads off and gnaw on them, rather than give them a hot-oil massage.
I may be completely wrong about this, but what can I say? I don't know everything.
"The Edge" is funny and often pretty darn scary. BIG WARNING: There are several very nasty bear attacks, and you also get to see a couple of impalings. Blood squirting, people yelping, etc. You'll want to look away once or twice. Rated R. 117 minutes.
Related site:
Note: Page will open in a new browser windowExternal sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.
|
Sound off on our message boards You said it... |
|
© 1997 Cable News Network, Inc.
All Rights Reserved.