Dallas Fisher

Now that the entirety of Cape Fear is streaming, I better put some thoughts on to digital paper.

If you didn’t know, this series is based off the 1991 Martin Scorsese film, which is a remake of the 1962 film, which is based off of a book. But, this is most closely related to the 90’s film because of its overall vibes and it being produced by Marty himself. I’ll do my best to not compare the two too much but that has already been very difficult to do, especially while watching it. Much of this show’s enjoyment for its viewers will highly fluctuate depending on how you feel about certain aspects, so let’s break it down by those things.

Thing 1: Amy Adams.

Most importantly, her accent. It’s the craziest southern accent I have ever heard and I loved every second of it. It absolutely made this series for me when it probably shouldn’t have. It felt like a lot of choices in this show were made to offset everything that was done in the most recent adaptation that I said I wouldn’t make comparisons to and this choice was top tier “gender swapping”. I know Adams isn’t in the role of Max Cady, but her taking on the only character with an accent sure made it feel that way. Adams being in the lead reminds me of a southern Richard Kimball with the way she handles every situation her family goes through.  Overall, Amy is excellent in this series. I can finally feel some relief from the anger I had been feeling because of her lack of movie roles over the past few years.

Thing 2: Javier Bardem (Max Cady)

This role was always going to be the hardest to take on because of how incredible De Niro was all those years ago and Javier delivers. He finally got to channel his inner Anton Chigurh again. I know Javier has said he wouldn’t want to come back to a role like this but I’m so glad he did. He’s layered, scary, and downright great. My only complaint about the character is that his look doesn’t feel as iconic because they basically copy and pasted the De Niro look onto his body. I did enjoy getting more time to flesh out the character as it was much needed for us to feel the complex feelings we had towards him. Bardem’s eyes are scary as hell. You can see all of his anger in them even without a single word said.

Thing 3: Patrick Wilson and the Family

Wilson is the perfect choice of the father for this story. His chemistry with Adams is beautiful. To have a character that is played as sort of an idiot can only be honed in by Amy’s stoic nature. Patrick’s presence also adds to the wonderful horror elements that are sprinkled throughout here. Is it just because his face always reminds me of Insidious or The Conjuring? Maybe, but he certainly has the chops to play scared, concerned, and protective.

In order to be protective, you have to have something to protect. Obviously there’s his wife but there’s also the kids. In the adaptation I’m familiar with, there’s only one kid but here there are two. One of those kids is the daughter played by Lily Collias and she is fantastic. So much of your interest settles in on her and how much you care for her side of things and I did a lot. I loved these four actors as a family and they made the fight you know is coming, perfection. Besides the Amy and Javier stuff, the thing I’ll take most out of this series is that we are in for some great roles from some young actors.

Thing 4: This Being a Series

That’s going to be the major complaint here, it being a series. It goes on too long. Simple as that. This story works perfectly in a time frame under two hours and stretching that to roughly ten, really made it difficult for me to stay interested. It unfortunately becomes more of a slow burn as the series rolls on when the first few episodes are some of the stronger episodes I have seen. That’s honestly why it took me so long to write anything down.

I’ve mentioned really loving the characters and even though I’m thrilled we get so much time with them, I almost wish this took directions different than what it did. Every corner did not need to be a shocking twist followed by cliff hangers. In the same sphere, having too many characters didn’t help anything.

Thing 5: The Rest

I can’t, and won’t, say much about the surprises in these episodes but some of them are great, but most of them aren’t. I actually couldn’t believe one of the characters/actors they chose to bring into the fold here. Every time they were on screen I wanted to change the non-existent channel like I was waiting for a commercial to end. It added absolutely nothing to the show or any character development that I found interesting.

I sort of mentioned with the Wilson stuff, but I love that this is shot like a horror film. It’s violent beyond my wildest dreams and so messed up that it’s hilarious at times. Even though I wasn’t a fan of it feeling like I was on a merry-go-round for ten hours, seeing the problems stack up from all angles was a delight. I was going to have 6 Things to talk about as I was going to settle on a 6/10 for the rating, but I am running out of things to talk about so this is where it ends.

In the end, Amy Adams v Javier Bardem is the matchup of the decade even though the story around them isn’t the greatest at keeping you hooked.