“The Edge” was the first movie David Mamet wrote specifically for Hollywood rather than as an adaptation of a play, so it still has some of the elements of a play such as a relatively small cast. Most of the movie is centered around just three of the characters, who have to try to walk to civilization through the Alaskan wilderness after a birdstrike downs their small plane. All of this is made much more difficult by the giant Kodiak grizzly bear relentlessly stalking them through the mountains, determined to eat every last one of them.

This might or might not be a very realistic scenario- grizzlies do sometimes eat people, but this bear's single-minded obsession is a bit odd- but it makes for a hell of a dramatic story. The trained bear they used for the movie is really terrifying, and their desperate attempt to defend themselves with improvised spears seems almost hopeless considering its sheer size and ferociousness. Still, as one of the characters says, “What one man can do, another can do,” and if our Stone Age ancestors could take out cave bears with nothing but sharpened sticks, then so could you or I.

This thrilling and inspiring premise is what makes “The Edge” so entertaining. You imagine yourself into the same situation and ask yourself “Would I survive?”

Anthony Hopkins has the leading role, playing a man who at first seems isolated by his wealth and power but eventually turns out to be even more isolated by his personal nobility. In a world of pettiness and selfishness and betrayal, he remains big-hearted, self-sacrificing and humble- and as a result he is completely alone. His journey from cerebral bookworm to bear-killing mountain-man is the core of the movie, and at the end of it all you just wish there was something more for him.