'The Edge': A Kodiak Moment

When a movie presents you with gorgeous mountains, rivers and forests, you figure it's time for Grizzly Adams. Not so in "The Edge," a sort of outward-bound, intellectual and extremely chatty thriller. Nature certainly looms large, as exemplified by a relentless, man-eating kodiak bear. But screenwriter David Mamet is far more interested in how the instinct for survival escalates existing human problems.

In other words, when a middle-aged billionaire intellectual called Charles (Anthony Hopkins) and a cocksure fashion photographer named Bob (Alec Baldwin) find themselves dumped in the Alaskan wilderness, how does this dilemma intensify their ongoing conflict?

That conflict surfaces moments before their float plane crashes into a mountain river. Without warning, Charles leans over to Bob and asks, very quietly, "So how do you plan on killing me?"

We know what Charles is talking about. The soft-spoken, well-read billionaire is married to Mickey (Elle Macpherson), a leggy, much younger fashion model who is waiting at their cabin for the men to return. Charles has two impressive attributes: money and intelligence. It's clear which of these qualities the rather superficial Mickey admires. She's up here, too, as Bob's model in a rugged fashion shoot. Charles has it all figured out--or thinks he does. Bob's interested in Mickey's body and Charles's money.

Or is he? One of the interesting things about the movie is what it doesn't tell us. We're not force-fed expositional information about everyone's pasts, childhood traumas or motivations.

We're confronted with implications and possibilities, interrupted by more pressing matters. Charles, Bob and one other survivor, Bob's photographic assistant Stephen (Harold Perrineau), are without weapons, technology, food or warm clothing. They have to figure out which direction to take, which sources to tap for nourishment and (here's the movie part of the movie) survive the single-minded harassment of the previously mentioned kodiak bear who's developed a real taste for people.

One other crucial element: Charles, who's all text and no action, has been reading up on survival techniques. He knows how to make a compass with only a needle, how to make fire from ice, and a hundred other pieces of Boy Scout information. This knowledge makes him indispensable. If Bob's planning to kill him, he's going to have to wait until they return to Mickey, the cabin and civilization.

This is hardly your normal movie experience. We've got a Sherlock Holmes-like character caught as a possible hostage in a movie usually reserved for the likes of Jeremiah Johnson. "The Edge," directed by Lee Tamahori (who also did "Once Were Warriors" and "Mulholland Falls"), often skitters between the ludicrous and the fascinating. ("Is this supposed to be funny?" asked one audience member at a recent screening.) But it's always interesting and entertaining. And Charles, whose story this is, almost literally talks us through the whole thing.

THE EDGE (R) -- Contains profanity and gruesome violence.