‘What one man can do, another can do…’
Anthony Hopkins is a fine actor but one of the things I find most endearing about him is that he is absolutely not afraid to ham it up if the role calls for it. He can deliver Oscar-worthy performances by the bucket load but he is just as at home in bombastic schlock like The Edge. Hopkins is one of our very best shouty actors and he does some excellent shouting here. Alec Baldwin on the other hand is only really capable of overacting, but the two of them together in the Canadian wilderness is a heady if often ridiculous mix…
Hopkins plays eccentric billionaire and genius Charles Morse who along with his much younger wife Mickey (Elle Macpherson) travels to Alaska for a photoshoot. After inexplicably deciding to leave the comfort of their lodge to attempt to find a local hunter named ‘Hawk’ (always a fool’s errand), Morse ends up trapped in the middle of nowhere with Mickey’s work colleague Bob (Baldwin) and his friend Stephen (Harold Perrineau).
A couple of things to note here. It is interesting to see how much cinema has changed since 1997 because there is absolutely no chance that any mainstream Hollywood movie in 2024 would have an old, white billionaire as the hero of the story. Secondly, yes, that is an actual bear. No CGI here. Take note Cocaine Bear. Director Lee Tamahori decided that only a real bear would do and so he brought in noted bear actor (apparently) Bart the Bear. Ironically, Bart’s performance is much more sincere and authentic than that of any of his human co-stars.
The Edge is not to be taken seriously, but it is a perfect Sunday afternoon movie. The kind of film that I can imagine myself idly returning to when I can’t face scrolling through numerous streaming services searching in vain for a tonic to ease my growing ennui. It has an actual bear in it, for chrissakes. What more do you want?
