| Country: | United States |
| Genre: | Science fiction |
| Runtime: | 95 min |
| Language: | English |
| Director: | Anne Heche, Mary Stuart Masterson, Helen Mirren, Jana Sue Memel |
| Screenplay: | Anne Heche, John W. Herrera, Mary Stuart Masterson, Crispin Whittell |
| Producer: | Jana Sue Memel |
| Starring: | Scott Lowell Jolene Blalock John Goodman Sydney Tamiia Poitier Anthony LaPaglia Karen Sillas Andie MacDowell Paul Rudd |
| Music: | Jason Frederick ( Happy Birthday ) Guy Dagul ( Reaching Normal ) Jim Goodwin David Renik |
| Company: | Chanticleer Films Paramount Television Paramount Pictures |
| Network: | Showtime |
On the Edge is a 2001 television film, broadcast on Showtime. It is a anthology film, with each segment directed by an actress with few or no prior directing credits and adapted from an existing science fiction short story. The film was part of the larger Showtime Directed By series.
The film consists of a frame segment, directed by Jana Sue Memel, and three story segments. The first, "Happy Birthday", was directed by Helen Mirren and was based on The Placement Test by Keith Laumer. The second segment, "The Other Side", was directed by Mary Stuart Masterson and based on Lifeboat on a Burning Sea by Bruce Holland Rogers. The third segment, "Reaching Normal", was directed by Anne Heche and based on Command Performance by Walter M. Miller Jr.
The film generally received negative or mixed reviews.[1] [2] A review in Variety describes it as "Three short films, all debut directing efforts by well-known actresses....Not surprisingly, the collection is uneven and the work a bit rough, particularly so when the actors also write their own scripts, as in the case of Mary Stuart Masterson and Anne Heche."[3] According to the website Fantafilm, the film is an "Interesting, even if not entirely successful, trilogy of the fantastic in which the actresses Masterson, Mirren, and Heche try their hand at directing by proposing a vision of the future with disconcerting and satirical tones."[4]
The tagline is: "Tales that will take you to the edge... if you dare...".[5]