Fear *** (1996, Mark Wahlberg, Reese Witherspoon) – Classic Movie Review 1008

Director James Foley’s 1996 thriller stars Mark Wahlberg as a plausible psycho who moves in on nice teenager Reese Witherspoon. She’s only sweet sixteen, but she just won’t heed her dad (William Petersen)s’ warnings. Soon Wahlberg stops being the cute charmer and goes apeshit and beats a friend just for walking with her, then goes ballistic when she breaks up with him.

This chiller, with its not exactly subtle or unfamiliar story (there’s a bit of Fatal Attraction in there), is a bit of a farrago, but it’s entirely watchable, entertaining even. In a difficult role, Wahlberg moves neatly from creepy charm to charming creep to utter psycho in fairly subtle gradations. Witherspoon, too, goes to it with a will and conviction Christopher Crowe’s screenplay scarcely deserves.

Director Foley turns in a taut, tense, slick, sneakily enjoyable movie. Commendably, it has no pretensions whatsoever, other than its wish to entertain. It’s the kind of disposable movie you forget all about an hour after you’ve seen it, but if you check it out again you’ll still find it a decent time-passer.

Foley is known as the director of At Close Range (1986), After Dark, My Sweet (1990), Glengarry Glen Ross (1992), The Chamber (1996), Confidence (2003), Perfect Stranger (2007) and TV’s House of Cards, with Kevin Spacey.

Crowe also wrote the screenplay of The Last of the Mohicans (1992).

http://derekwinnert.com/fatal-attraction-michael-douglas-glenn-close-classic-film-review-1002/

http://derekwinnert.com/after-dark-my-sweet-classic-film-review-332/

http://derekwinnert.com/the-chamber-1996-gene-hackman-chris-odonnell-classic-film-review-1006/

http://derekwinnert.com/the-watcher-2000-keanu-reeves-james-spader-marisa-tomei-classic-movie-review-1598/

Check out more reviews on http://derekwinnert.com/