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.

Elegant but facile version of the Maugham novel, a passion project for Murray who is good in parts of the film but flat in others. On it's own an okay film hampered by over-length but compared to the Tyrone Power/Gene Tierney original, which has its own problems, it's a pale shadow. A good deal of the fault for that lies in both the direction and the performances. The general ennui of the performances may in fact be laid at the director's feet. All are capable actors as they've shown elsewhere but here be it a mismatch of actor/actress and part or lack of direction most founder. Theresa Russell does the film's best work but even her Sophie is missing the bruised sorrow that made Anne Baxter's take on the part so compelling and won her the Oscar for best supporting actress. James Keach evaporates from the screen in a rather thankless role that John Payne managed to make an impression in with a show of quiet strength. Surprisingly the weakest of the star spots is Catherine Hicks, usually a very fine actress, adrift in her part. She exudes a warm presence on screen totally wrong for the heartless, mindlessly cruel Isabel that Gene Tierney playing with an icy edge made vivid.A good try but only average.

This movie sucked. I did "get it," and it sucked. Why Murray! Why! Why did you finally make a movie that totally blowed? Who know's what the answer is to that, but the point is that this movie sucked. Maybe everyone, even the greats like Murray, needs a sucky one. I wish I didn't watch this. Please be funny. I will try to forget this crapatacular flick.I've been on a Murray marathon for about a week now. I've watched Lost in Translation, Moonlight Kingdom, The Man Who Knew Too Little, and I can't remember the other one, but this last movie just ruined a perfect kill streak.Most people will say that I don't appreciate drama, or that I couldn't handle Murray's transformation. I do like drama, but I couldn't handle Murray's transformation from awesome to eating balls. That is what this movie is: a big ball eating contest with Murray wearing the crown.