Cape Fear

Starring: Robert De Niro, Nick Nolte, Jessica Lange, Juliette Lewis, Joe Don Baker, Robert Mitchum, Gregory Peck, Illeana Douglas
Directed by: Martin Scorsese
Rating: R
Genre: Crime, Horror, Thriller
1991

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: A rapist (Robert De Niro) is released from prison after fourteen years, and immediately begins harassing his former attorney (Nick Nolte), his wife (Jessica Lange), and young daughter (Juliette Lewis). As his actions become increasingly more dangerous and frightening, the family is frustrated to see the law not able to stop him.

Review:

Tim: Martin Scorsese directs a remake of a classic thriller, and achieves a good level of success with his film. Cape Fear is indeed a chilling, frightening movie about a seemingly unstoppable deranged man terrorizing a family. Scorsese is such a talented director that he manages to create a suspenseful, enjoyable thriller. However, just as the movie starts to approach the territory of greatness, it goes way too over-the-top. This is a very good movie, but Scorsese could have done better.

The film's major strength is the cast. Robert De Niro is such a tremendous actor, and he is in full force crazy mode here. De Niro can flat out act, and he was given a juicy, flashy part here. He fully embraces the crazy, and the movie works because of his chilling portrayal of an intelligent, psychopathic rapist. I loved De Niro in this film. Nick Nolte is good as the attorney trying to save his family. Nolte doesn't do anything spectacular, but he plays the part straight forward, so he works. Jessica Lange was fine, but I wasn't overly impressed. She gives a good enough performance and does get a few minutes to showcase her acting ability as well, but I think there may have been a better actress for the part. Juliette Lewis, on the other hand, was absolutely the right choice. I understand that dozens of actresses were looked at for the part, but it is hard to imagine anyone else in the role. She gives a great performance for such a young actress. This film was nominated for two Academy Awards- Best Actor for Robert De Niro and Best Supporting Actress for Juliette Lewis. These were both deserved recognitions.

I also liked the supporting actors. Joe Don Baker is great, and has a good influence on the film. I also loved that Scorsese included Robert Mitchum and Gregory Peck (the stars of the original) in small roles here. It was a bit sad to see a much older Peck in his last feature film role, but I appreciated his presence nonetheless.

For much of the movie, Scorsese does a good job of creating a story about a murderous psychopath terrorizing an everyday family. I love that Scorsese paints this family as a flawed, realistic family. This is not an ideal family- they are flawed, cracked, and honestly real. I appreciated that. I also like how Scorsese balanced the crazy, insane events that happen with the more realistic, believable aspects. It was incredibly important for this movie to be grounded in reality- and for most of the film, it works. The problem is that as the movie goes on, it becomes harder and harder to buy the story. It just feels less and less realistic, until the movie finally goes over-the-top. This was the major flaw of the movie. I wish Scorsese would have sacrificed a bit of tension and suspsense for a more believable story.

While Cape Fear might have some shortcomings, this is still a solid, entertaining thriller from one of the greatest directors of all time. I thoroughly enjoyed the movie, and I highly recommend it. It has some truly terrifying moments (the biting scene!) and despite simply being too long (Scorsese struggles with keeping us engaged for 128 minutes), this is still a very good movie.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7.5



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Casino, Taxi Driver, Goodfellas