Review of Cape Fear (1991) by Nick O — 04 Dec 2013

"Cape Fear" has the fatal attraction of one of Hitchcock's classic "wrong man" scenarios, only the twist here is it's actually the right man Max Cady (Robert De Niro) is literally killing to find. After serving fourteen tortuous years in a federal corrections facility, serial rapist Cady seeks to avenge his sentence by bugging the living fuck out of defense lawyer Sam Bowden (Nick Nolte) and the rest of his immediate kin, wife Leigh (Jessica Lange) and daughter Danielle (Juliette Lewis), fueled by the suspicion Sam withheld evidence that could maybe have led to Max's acquittal.

Of all the Master of Suspense's not-so-humble imitators, the one Martin Scorsese's "Cape Fear" -- remaking J. Lee Thompson's 1962 film of the same name -- most resembles early on is Brian De Palma. In a beguiling sequence set at Sam's luxurious home, as the adult couple confront one another, Scorsese switches between a medium shot of Leigh talking and another when Sam does that appears as if the camera is inside the bathroom mirror, making the image accurately reflect "Cape Fear's" haunted atmosphere of the decidedly distant past impeding on the present. And in Sam's relationship too -- it's implied later on that outside of preeminently sending Max away, he also married Leigh as satisfying the means of making her repress the memory of his own prior infidelities.

Symbolism abounds in "Cape Fear", as do larger questions -- was Sam exactly misguided in imprisoning Max, the big bad wolf encroached upon their comfy, domestic fairy tale? To protect his family, will a man hipper than most to the legal ramifications of taking the law into his own hands risk working around the judicial system he knows is broken? In my nearly post-2013 mindset (time's a bitch, ain't it) I'd relate the subdued feeling of "Cape Fear" to something akin to "Prisoners", and begrudgingly overseen by the targeted economic vise of "The Counselor". But never mind that. Point is, "Cape Fear" is a damn effective thriller, even on the occasion it opts for bluntness, bloat and cliche over a more narrow lethal precision. Scorsese presents the film's dual sides of noble and sinful sadism as a mask, not evil Max's but that of the dowry Sam; the sinking realization that the criminal interrogation room only stays one-sided for so long before festering comes home to roost. (84/100).