Fear

A replay of Cape Fear for a teenage audience. Wahlberg takes the De Niro role seducing both the virginal 16-year-old Nicole (Witherspoon), and, at least metaphorically, her stepmother (Brenneman). He's a charmer on the surface, but big trouble underneath, as Nicole's father (Petersen) quickly recognises. Trying to keep them apart, he only makes things much, much worse. The film, set in Seattle, begins very gloomily and ends well off the rails in Straw Dogs territory. There's just enough play on the idea of paternal jealousy to merit the term 'subtext', but the text itself is hackneyed, and the invitation to take this macho pissing contest seriously is all too resistible.