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Movieline Magazine

"Greatish Performances"

Review by Michael Atkinson

Published in Movieline Magazine - June 1997

I KNOW, I MUST CERTAINLY BE A FEW MELON BALLS short of a fruit cocktail to nominate this actor in this movie for retrospective kudos. After all, this actor is widely regarded as more of a comedian than an actor, and this movie is regarded as the indisputable evidence of why that's a fair assessment. Well, a sublime movie performance can sometimes happen by accident. Thanks to serendipity, cross purposes, complete ignorance or the actor's own bizarre unsuitability for the role. And sure, check off all of the above for Murray in this freakishly sad version of W. Somerset Maugham's novel The Razors Edge, the tale of the spiritual growth of one Larry Darrell, a 20th-Century American pilgrim seeking enlightenment in the far corners of the globe after the scourge of World War I.

Murray, who selected this project as his dramatic debut on the heels of Ghostbusters, does seem to be at odds with his source material about what's serious and what isn't, and as a result, his Darrell is equal parts deadpan clown, befuddled nowhere man and utter mystery. But if you ask me, that makes him a complete person - we're never sure what he's thinking - In other words, Murray is the perfect Larry Darrell. (In other words, Tyrone Power's Larry from the 1946 film is nowhere near as interesting.)

The contradictions Murray brought with him to this part may be what's behind the aura of bewilderment that makes Darrell seem so human. Serious scenes are routinely interrupted by Murray's fits of inappropriate schtick (his imitation of a seal at poolside as Darrell's disgruntled fiancée is trying to talk turkey is priceless). In other moments. Murray's baby-faced reaction to tragedy -not something they teach in acting school- is heartbreaking in its lostness. And, since Darrell is himself at loss -that's why he goes searching- it works. Murray's signature sarcasm, dry and distancing, becomes Darrell's way of negotiating with the postwar world he doesn't quite understand, as well as the spiritually bankrupt world he must learn to live in after he's attained peace.

Murray rarely gets things traditionally "right" in this movie, but neither does the man he's playing- Darrell is never finished as a person, and Murray never tries finishing him as a character. Most actors think they know all the answers about the roles they play; Murray doesn't, and his lonely innocence is oddly moving. Any other actor- a better actor, even- couldn't have achieved the beleaguered numbness of the early battlefield sequences, or the relaxed way Darrell insults a Parisian pimp and then, feigning surprise, declares, "You just can't kid with Coco", or the moment when Darrell presses his cheek against his murdered lover's lips after he kisses them. Even Murray's habit of frequently clearing the uncomfortable lump in his throat before speaking is in itself true and poignant. And, of course, Darrell is compulsively funny in the classic Murray manner. The Film's other characters react to his non sequiturs with tolerant smiles or with expressions that suggest they think they may be watching a seizure, Sometimes you don't know what to make of a performance and that's the unsettling beauty of it.

Michael Atkinson