Will Hume reviews the season premiere of Apple TV’s Cape Fear remake…
There has been a world of change in the 34 years since Martin Scorsese took us on a visceral tour of Cape Fear but Max Cady still has newspaper clippings of the case pinned up in his house. Now set in 2026 his lawyer’s family is made up of Anna (Amy Adams) his defence lawyer and in a new twist Tom (Patrick Wilson), the prosecutor who put him away for the murder of his wife and unborn child. Anna and Tom have a son Zack (Joe Anders) who is despondent, plays video games alone in his room, ignores his dad and has undiagnosed mental health issues. One night he wanders home with his toe cut off. Could Cady be involved? He’d have to be right, or there’s no story? Or perhaps it’s a different story this time.
This third retelling adds to the small twists, the 1991 Scorsese film had, as well as the 1962 original, and the 1957 novel which all get credit here. But the two main influences this time around are the decades of true crime murder serials that have played out in court since the last version as well as the impact of social media. The Ramseys, The Petersons, the Murdaugh family all serve as a blueprint for the upper class Bowden family. The show has the awareness to sew the seeds of the family’s destruction in their portrayal of the media. Every snap of a photo or video from a stalkerazzi or a planned benefit has the power to come back to haunt them.
Cady as an antagonist is still driven by mad jealousy of the Bowden family in a way that makes more sense and is painted in a more sympathetic light. Unlike the previous versions Cady is not a sex offender. His colored contacts aren’t just a stylish gimmick either. His conviction for murdering his wife and unborn child was overturned and we get an early glimpse of his life in prison where he was attacked and severely wounded leading to blindness in one eye and a light sensitivity. This visually gives the Bowden’s a reminder of the potential injustice they served. His jealousy also makes a lot more sense as Anna unsuccessfully defended Cady for the murder of his unborn child while pregnant with her own daughter Natalie. Zack sees a deep fake online of Cady’s unborn child grown up. The menace that Cady inflicts seems to be aiming less physically (although he is still a force) and more social oriented. He might be influencing their son through anonymous texts or online. Time will tell if the show can thread the needle of sympathy between Max Cady and the Bowden family.
Is there an easier pick for a psychopath than Javier Bardem? The man won an Oscar for playing one in the Best Picture winning No Country For Old Men, and was the main villain in Skyfall, the most successful Bond movie of all-time. Naysayers initially knocked his casting for being uninspired, a role he could play in his sleep. However, what sets Bardem’s version of Cady apart is that while looking like a villain, and being introduced like a villain, he acts like a human being. Following standard filmmaking grammar his face isn’t revealed until he speaks because his reputation precedes him. Bardem and co. let the audience’s understanding of the history of the character do all the heavy lifting. The show isn’t interested in exploring Cady as the relentless cartoonish psychopath De Niro brilliantly played in the 1991 version, that would be too exhausting over 10 episodes. Cady speaks softly, letting the direction and the character’s reputation do the work.
The downsides to the production are that the dialogue is too on the nose for a tone that plays the material this plainly. There’s loads of clunky exposition where characters will say things each other would already know. Like when the kids each state their relationship to their parents, ‘You’re their real kid’, ‘But they like you better though’. In another scene Anna explains how she fell in love with Tom during Cady’s court case. The plainness goes beyond dialogue into symbolism when a family of dead skunks are fished out of the pool. Other dialogue curiously lacks specificity “Damnit, it’s doing that thing again”, referring to electronic interference with the security system which will obviously come up later when Cady breaks into the house. A major coincidence comes early on during a hospital visit where Cady shows up a few rooms away from the Bowden family, he meets up with Anna, then Zack in the bathroom but avoids Tom.
Hopefully the clunkiness is used properly for efficiency and doesn’t jam up in future episodes. These are the moments that remind you that despite the A-list Hollywood cast, you’re still watching something of TV movie quality and that’s a step down rather than a step ahead. More balance is needed.
Will Hume
