Review of The Edge (1997) by Mjs M — 27 Jun 2009

This is one of those movies that are sort of born to be rented and watched over a weekend even if it?s good enough to be seen in theaters. It took me well over a decade to get around to it, but it was worth the wait.

Deep down, the bulk of this movie can be boiled down to Jaws with a bear, even if it?s done a lot to mask its creature feature roots with such assets as: a title which emphasizes psychological tension over carnivorous encounters, a screenplay by David Mamet, and an overqualified cast with such talents as Anthony Hopkins, Alec Baldwin, and the wheelchair guy from Oz.

Hopkins is certainly an unconventional star of an action movie which is really nice to see, although its rather hard to take Alec Baldwin seriously anymore in the wake of 30 Rock. As a wilderness adventure film the movie worked pretty damn well, the scenery was good, the survival tactics were clever, and the bear was scary.

Then after a climactic moment Mamet?s screenplay finally kicks into gear and the elements of his writing which seemed fragmentary earlier sort of come to fruition, but not as well as they could have. I sort of wish Mamet had been on set to direct some of his dialogue here, some real gems of dialogue are just wasted by Lee Tamahori who generally seems more concerned with bear fights and ignores a lot of satirical elements.

Still, the movie more than lived up to any and all expectations I have for a movie of this genre, and that bear fight really was awesome, so I can?t really complain.