Review of Cape Fear (1991) by Arth J — 04 Jan 2019

To Mourn And To Charge.

Cape Fear.

Scorsese's calculatively planned and emotionally influenced revenge is both cheesy and smart. Enfolding layer after layer, the screenplay just keeps giving you back the thrills that were promised. Armed with such a buoyant script Scorsese is surprisingly chalky on terms of execution. With eerie camera work and ear numbing explosions blazing across the screen, the film makes you uncomfortable not significantly, but in its inadequacy to stay true to its tone. Brimmed with smart tricks to overpower each other on screen, Nolte and De Niro may not get a better role than this to go mano-y-mano on screen. From conversations to physical sequences, this meticulous script may have written people pleasing entertainment all over it, but there also resides a layered illuminating concept that is vivid enough to recite Bible and other mythological ideologies.

Mutilating every aspect of Nolte's possession; personal and professional, De Niro is on the podium with a sensational speech on mind and performance on his body language. Among many sharp encounters of his with multiple characters, the most riveting is the one he shares with Lewis. The entire conversation is a build up and the gist of the film itself, his rage that masks the entire screen to honesty is a testament to his majestic performance.

Walking parallel-y Nolte is a convincing flawed human whose family is at risk and even though he never gets to score on De Niro's level, his own resistance towards the concept of life and death is intriguing. Lewis and Lange are too impressive on their supporting role, especially the brattiness of Lewis and her gullible nature that denses up the storytelling. Scorsese fails to picturize the explicit writing on screen that every now and then raises questions. Cape Fear is through and through on clearly depicting the concept, the fear is genuinely felt by us.