No one could mistake this, a survival adventure in Jack London territory, as a major creative effort on the part of its decorated author, David Mamet. But nor is there any mistaking the conscientious craftsmanship, the sturdiness of construction, the ingrained artistry. The essential plot ingredients are meticulously laid out. Old Man Moneybags (Anthony Hopkins) has been prevailed upon to take some time off to accompany his too young and too beautiful wife ("supermodel" Elle Macpherson) on a fashion shoot in arctic Canada, together with her compatibly young and beautiful photographer (Alec Baldwin) and small entourage. Mamet buckles immediately down to business. He sets up the protagonist's "freak" photographic memory and omnivorous reading habits, his crammed memory bank of useless or in any event hitherto unused information, in addition to his stereotypical rich man's insecurity that he is tolerated only for his net worth. He sets up, too, the Cree Indian symbolism of the predatory panther and the pipe-smoking rabbit who is unafraid because he knows he is smarter. He sets up the danger of birds to a low-flying aircraft and the ever-present danger of the bears in the woods. And no sooner does the paranoid billionaire bluntly articulate his mounting suspicions to the photographer -- "So, how are you planning to kill me?" -- than a flock of birds knocks their puddle-jumper out of the sky, killing the pilot and stranding the two of them, plus one expendable (a black man), in a state of mutual dependency in the stomping grounds of a man-eating Kodiak. The ensuing action comes by its suspense honestly and hard-workingly, a formal, a structural sort of suspense, affording the pleasure of watching and waiting for the planted seeds to sprout their fruits. This is very much an aesthetic pleasure, and the eventual harvest very fulfilling. And Mamet's poetic sense of sound and of rhythm has not abandoned him in the wilderness: "Now it's the broad. Now it's the boodle. Nothing is safe." With Harold Perrineau, L.Q. Jones, Kathleen Wilhoite; directed by Lee Tamahori. (1997) — Duncan Shepherd
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