Saturday 28 April 2012

The Edge (4 Stars)

Charles Morse (Anthony Hopkins) is a reclusive billionaire. His wife Mickey (Elle Macpherson) is a successful model. When Mickey goes on a photoshoot to Akaska with her photographer Robert Green (Alec Baldwin) her husband decides to accompany her. He has no prior experience of visiting wild places outside of cililisation, he knows about it only from books and wants to see things for himself.

While taking a plane journey to find an Indian that Green wants to use in the photos the plane crashes, leaving Morse and Green as the only survivors. The film shows their struggle for survival while being stalked by a bear. Things are complicated when Morse finds out that Green has been having an affair with his wife.

This is a difficult film for me to rate. In many ways it's a cinematic masterpiece, but it has some aspects that make it flawed.

Let's start with what I like. The scenery is breathtaking. Visually, it's one of the most beautiful films I've ever seen. This stands in stark contrast to the horror of being followed by a bear which is leering nearby every time they set up camp. If I were judging the film on this alone it would deserve a straight 5 stars.

Now to the negatives: I feel the film misses out by not revealing the affair with Morse's wife much earlier in the film. Morse knows that Green "has been looking at her", but if he'd found proof towards the beginning of their fight for survival it would have given their mutual journey more of an edge. The haphazard style of the photo shoot also seems unrealistic. Green and Mickey just tag along with a group of tourists on holiday with hardly any supporting staff. I can't imagine that a high profile model would work so unprofessionally. And then there's Morse's personality, which may be judged positively by many viewers, but it irritated me. Morse is shy, he mumbles, and he has a way of talking to people without looking them in the eye. It's like he's shunning contact with people.

I'll give this film an overall rating of 4 stars, although I know that many would rate it higher. Click here to view the trailer.

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