Fear

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Mark Wahlberg, Alyssa Milano, Amy Brenneman, William Peterson
Directed by: James Foley
Rating: R
Genre: Drama, Thriller
1996

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A peaceful family is disturbed when the daughter (Reese Witherspoon) falls for a dangerous man (Mark Wahlberg) who becomes enraged when she refuses to see him anymore.

Review:

Tim: I still can't believe that this is not a made-for-TV movie. I admit I didn't spend much time researching this (read: about thirty seconds), but the entire movie feels like some Lifetime original crap. Sure, the movie isn't terrible, but it just feels like some Saturday afternoon feature for "television for women." Getting past that, the film is still pretty much a crap shoot.

The cast is decent. Reese Witherspoon has enough innocence to make us care about her being in turmoil. This has to be the best casting choice of the film. Mark Wahlberg isn't bad as the psycho boyfriend. I already don't like him very much, so it was easy for me to watch him in this role. He has a few moments of sinister brilliance. Alyssa Milano is a waste, but when is she not? I like William Peterson as Witherspoon's dad. He is so easy to watch and adds so much to the film.

This film is decent, but too often feels like a cheesy morality tale. I suppose on one hand, this is a good warning because there are bad people out there. but, unless you are a teenage girl, it would be hard to find too much enjoyment out of this movie. It is not very entertaining at all. To make matters worse, there are some absolutely ridiculous scenes that occur as the movie begins to spiral out of control in the third act. This story has been told time and time again, and in much better fashion that it is here. I'm sorry to say it, but I fear this movie just doesn't offer anything new and isn't very good at all.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 6



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