America has not entered WWI yet. Larry Darrell (Bill Murray) with his girlfriend Isabel Bradley (Catherine Hicks), his best friend Gray Maturin (James Keach) and Sophie MacDonald (Theresa Russell) live a comfortable upper class life. Larry and Gray go to Europe to drive an ambulance. After the war, Larry goes in search for himself. In Paris, he and Isabel end up not getting married as he pushes on as a coal miner and eventually cooking at a Tibetan monastery. Isabel ends up married to Gray who goes to work for his father. The Great Depression hits the family brokerage hard and Gray's father commits suicide. Sophie suffers after her husband and child are killed in a car crash. Larry runs into Isabel and Gray with their two daughters now broke in Paris. They also find Sophie who became a drug addicted prostitute.Bill Murray does a good but not a great job. He is always great at the zen jester character. He just can't reach the darker depths necessary during and right after the war. It also occurs to me that this is the story of two people. Isabel is the other person and the movie needs to zero in on that. Theresa Russell would have been a great Isabel although she's a perfectly fine Sophie in the movie. Sophie could have done by somebody more fragile. It's a good attempt by Murray but not all successful.

The second adaptation of the iconic novel, this Bill Murray centric- version follows him as Larry, an early 20th century socialite who ends serving as an ambulance driver in WW1. Marked by this experience, he distances himself from the high life in America and begins a global search for life's meaning, from the mines of Britannia to the mountains of Tibet.Beautifully mounted, the 80s 'Razor's Edge' assembles a lot of great components, yet never fully meets expectation. From a writing standpoint, this is down to the inciting incident that leads to Larry's soul search: it just isn't well developed enough. The WW1 segment isn't very long, and you don't really get the impression that Larry is scarred or shocked by it. What's more, they try to have him have this relationship with his officer, Piedmont (played by Brian Murray), but the screen time they do share sees them more at odds or Larry being bewildered by the brashness of Piedmont. Why does his death matter so much to Larry? As a byproduct of this one misfire, it weakens everything else in the story, and makes Larry's journey not feel as powerful or weighty as it so badly needs to be.This is a genuine shame that they got this one key element wrong, as everything else is top notch. It's very well filmed, especially thanks to its international, on location backdrop. The stuff up in the Himalayas in particular is pretty spectacular. Performances are also of a similar calibre; for his first straight role, old Bill isn't half bad. Sometimes he can be a little rigid, but for the most part, his dryness and friendly demeanour compensate. He is joined by the likes of Catherine Hicks, Theresa Russell and James Keach, who all add solid work. And finally, Jack Nitzsche's score; very elegant, and though it mainly relies on a recurring motif of strings that sounds very similar to Morricone's 'Time of Destiny', it actually works rather well and is genuinely moving.In the end, 'Razor's Edge' is an ambitious failure, but not a boring or indulgent one at least. For Murray fans, it's an intriguing little curio and an important step in his development.

I really wanted to enjoy this film, being a fan of Somerset Maugham. I found it devoid of interesting characters – Bill Murray zombie walked through scene after excruciating scene with hardly a change of expression. His journey to India was hackneyed and terribly contrived. He may just as well have played the part in a shopping mall – his deadpan performance gave the film a belaboured feel through-out. The confrontations between characters – such as they were – had little impact. The whole thing was just boring and ringed false. Perhaps I give it a few points for the scenery and the storyline did change from time to time. Much better to read the novel instead of looking at this.

I'm not a film buff, I just like a film to be thought provoking and entertaining. I watched this film because Bill Murray was involved. Without addressing the quality of the cinematography or the acting (all of which seemed adequate to me), I'll point out that this is the film that brought me to the work of Somerset Maugham. I knew that there was more to the story than what was presented on screen, so I checked the book out of the library. I keep a few of Maugham's works on my bookshelves, and go back to them periodically because I enjoy his work so much. Knowing that Bill Murray took this on as a personal project certainly changed my opinion (for the better) of him as an actor, and that includes his comedy. Bill Murray's "The Razor's Edge" was a good starting point for me.