Fear X *** (2003, John Turturro, Deborah Kara Unger, James Remar, Stephen Eric McIntyre) – Classic Movie Review 9408

Director Nicolas Winding Refn’s 2003 surreal neo noir thriller Fear X stars John Turturro, Deborah Kara Unger and James Remar. Refn co-writes the screenplay with Hubert Selby Jr, who wrote the books of Last Exit to Brooklyn and Requiem for a Dream. Selby Jr wrote all of the dialogue.

Turturro plays security guard Harry Cain, who has weird paranoid visions after his wife Kate (Unger) is murdered in a Wisconsin shopping mall where he works, and begins a bizarre investigation by breaking into the house opposite, where he finds a photo that leads him to Montana in search of the supposed killer. Remar plays Peter Northrup, an outstanding police lieutenant, who is filled with dread when he hears a mystery man from Wisconsin is enquiring about his dead wife.

The excellent premise, Turturro’s splendidly tortured performance, Larry Smith’s imaginative photography, Brian Eno’s weird music and Refn’s well-focused direction are all on the plus side in this arty psychological thriller that alas loses its way about two thirds through and doesn’t quite make the grade, despite all the good work. In a unique collaboration, Refn and Selby Jr’s intelligent script becomes muddled and lacks the clarity required. Refn enjoys the rare luxury of filming in chronological order.

You could call this surreal neo noir thriller Kubrickian or Lynchian as it has shades of Stanley Kubrick and David Lynch.

A Denmark / Canada / UK / Brazil co-production, it is shot in Canada.

Also in the cast are Stephen Eric McIntyre, William Allen Young, Gene Davis, Mark Houghton, Jacqueline Ramel, Nadia Litz, Chad Panting, Amanda Ooms and  Liv Corfixen.

Fear X is directed by Nicolas Winding Refn, runs 91 minutes, is made by American Entertainment Investors, Det Danske Filminstitut, Fear X Ltd, NWR Film Productions, Nordisk Film, TV2 Danmark and Moviehouse Entertainment, is released by Verve Pictures (2004) (UK) and Silver Nitrate Releasing (2005) (US), is written by Nicholas Winding Refn and Hubert Selby Jr, is shot by Larry Smith, is produced by Henrik Danstrup, is scored by Brian Eno and J Peter Schwalm, and is designed by Peter De Neerrgaard.

Refn went on to make Bronson (2008), Valhalla Rising (2009), Drive (2011), Only God Forgives and The Neon Demon.

The rights for the British edition of Last Exit to Brooklyn were bought by Marion Boyars and John Calder, and it was published to favourable reviews and sales of 14,000 copies. But the director of Blackwell’s bookshop in Oxford complained and Sir Cyril Black, Conservative MP for Wimbledon, started a private prosecution in July 1966, leading to guilty verdict at London’s Marlborough Street Magistrates’ Court. Then the public prosecutor brought an action under the Obscene Publications Act. At the nine-day trial in London’s Old Bailey, witnesses for the prosecution included the publisher Sir Basil Blackwell, while scholars Al Alvarez and Professor Frank Kermode appeared for the defence. There was a guilty verdict but in August 1968 an appeal led by lawyer/ writer John Mortimer was successful, marking a turning point in British censorship law.

Last Exit to Brooklyn (1989) and Requiem for a Dream (2000) were both filmed.

Hubert Selby Jr died on 26 April 26 2004, aged 75.

© Derek Winnert 2020 Classic Movie Review 9408

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