Tuesday, July 9, 2019

The Razor's Edge (1984)

Larry Darrel (Bill Murray) is a well-liked rogue from Illinois who volunteers to drive an ambulance in France during the Great War in the days before the US joined the war.  The war has a profound effect on him and his plans for marriage to Isabel (Catherine Hicks) and get a job as a stock broker no longer appeal to him.  Setting out on a voyage of self-discovery, he works blue-color jobs in France before traveling to India and then Tibet.  By the time he returns, the Depression has hit and Isabel is married.  He is fine with this though Isabel still carries a torch for him, so much so that she becomes jealous of Sophie (Theresa Russell), his fiancĂ©.
 
This was Murray's first big venture into serious acting and it shows.  Viewers who loved him in Meatballs, Caddyshack, Stripes, and Tootsie were baffled by this movie.  I know I was.  Even though this is a 'serious' role, he introduced a lot of comedy, some of it quite funny.  I really enjoyed his flight from the children asking for money in India.  The impression of a seal, silliness with Tibetan vegetables, and other flashes of goofiness all undermine the seriousness of the story.  He feels miscast.  In fact, much of the cast is wrong for their parts.  Catherine Hicks is usually a sunny sort and the conniving didn't come naturally to her.  By contrast, Theresa Russell is probably best known for her role in Black Widow as the woman who kills her husbands, managing to shift from irresistible charm to black-hearted murder quite convincingly.  These two should have swapped parts.
 
An interesting footnote in the mostly comic career of Murray.  In order to get funding for this movie, he agreed to star in another comedy.  When The Razor's Edge wrapped, he went to NYC to start filming that other movie: Ghostbusters.

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