The Edge of Exasperation: David Mamet's The Edge starring Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins (1997)

[Here's another time capsule review from 12 years ago.]

I may be the wrong type of guy to write a review of The Edge. The writer of the movie, David Mamet, evidently believes you're not really a man until you have to use your wits to survive in the cold Alaskan wilderness. You have to build fires to keep drying off your damp clothes. You have to go for days without food and then maybe gnaw on half of a squirrel you catch in a little ingenious stick trap shaped like a box. If that isn't enough, you're not really a man until you kill a 500 lb grizzly bear by wedging a spear in a rock so the upraised howling, drooling bear impales itself on its own weight and falls on top of you.

The last film that followed this trial-by-torment ethic was G. I. Jane, which at least was trashily entertaining. The Edge takes its old fashioned Hemingwayesque Grizzly Adams/Jack London/Deliverance survival shtick seriously, which eventually makes it a dreary bore. Anthony Hopkins plays Charles, a billionaire genius who flies out to the frozen tundra with his much younger wife, Elle Macpherson, who supermodels faux Native American clothes for handsome fashion photographer Bob (Alec Baldwin), who is sleeping with her on the sly.

Out at the bear lodge, Charles quickly establishes himself as an overcivilized scaredy-cat when Bob frightens him with the head of a bear rug. I think we are meant to think of Alec Baldwin as a frivolous superficial photographer modern man, but he looks too strong and resourceful for the part. He decides he wants to hire a local bear-hunting Indian for a fashion shoot and so they fly north into a flock of birds that causes the plane to crash into the water, and away they go on their adventure.

For awhile Bob and Charles have another character played by Harold Perrineau walking along with them, but he proves to be early bear meat after he accidentally cuts his leg and attracts the bear with the smell of his blood. Compared to the shark in Jaws or the big snake in Anaconda, this grizzly looks kind of cute. I kept thinking the real circus or zoo-kept bear probably enjoyed his occasional jaunts out in the woods in front of a camera. We also get to see a computer animated bear and a man-in-a-bear-suit bear for the fancier stunts. This grizzly means business because he has a special preference for humans, and so he tracks Bob and Charles for half of the film. He has his own special bear music for his appearances, some sort of wonking trombone sound to go with the loud epic orchestral music.

Did I mention the breathtaking natural scenery? The many feats of courage, strength, and stamina? Charles knows that Bob wants to kill him to get his money and his supermodel wife, which adds a nice little plot wrinkle. Is Bob saving Charles' life just so he can kill him later? (Spoiler alert) After they kill the bear, they both wear bear pelt coats, hats, and bear claw necklaces so they really look like two Grizzly Adamses. We see their actions and faces take on a soulful dignity born of true manlihood.

Maybe Boy Scouts, hunters, and men suffering midlife crises might like and learn from this movie, but I didn't. I guess I'm not man enough.