Cape Fear Review

Cape Fear, the new AppleTV+ adaptation of John MacDonald’s “The Executioners” as well as two previous film installments with the same name*, did something that most new TV series can’t do: It got me to keep watching all the way through my screeners despite me being pretty sure that I didn’t like the series. How did it accomplish this? Well, as I watched all eight episodes (out of a total of ten) provided for critics, I kept wondering if the show was trying to be so utterly ridiculous – in the writing, the performances, the character beats, the twists and turns (most of which weren’t nearly as shocking as they were meant to be) – that it was satirizing the genre of the thriller. Or was it just missing the mark so spectacularly that it was often falling into the realm of over-the-top insanity rather than grounding any of the story in reality. And I have to say, I’m still not quite sure, but I strongly suspect it’s the latter – which is more shocking than the series is trying to be, considering the talent involved in the production.

*All three pieces of source material – the novel, the 1962 film, and the 1991 film – get credit in the opening credits of each episode. And Martin Scorsese and Steven Spielberg – the director and producer of the 1991 film – have executive producer credits on the series.

While I haven’t seen any of the previous films or read the novel the series pulls from, a quick bit of research tells me that while the basic story in this version of Cape Fear remains the same, there’s more than enough changes to make the series stand on its own – for good and for ill. Our central protagonist is Anna Bowden (Amy Adams, choosing to adopt a wispy Southern accent that comes and goes a bit), a former defense attorney who now works for an Innocence Project of sorts, trying to get falsely convicted individuals out of prison. She’s married to Tom (Patrick Wilson, also occasionally adopting a Southern accent), a former prosecutor who now works as a defense attorney at a flashy law firm. They have two kids, Natalie (Lily Collias, who doesn’t try for a Southern accent, and gives one of the most interesting performances in the series), the golden child who believes her parents ignore her because they assume she’s always going to do the right thing, and Zack (Joe Anders, also accent-less), the screw-up with emerging mental health issues who Tom and Anna funnel all their time and energy into. Everything seems to be chugging along just fine until Max Cady (Javier Bardem, doing his damnedest to walk the line between menacing and charming), a former client of Anna’s who took a deal that ended up with him serving a life sentence for murdering his wife, is released from prison after his former mistress confesses to the killing. Slowly, Max begins integrating himself into the Bowdens’ lives – moving nearby, helping out at Anna’s firm, showing up places unannounced. Is he trying to intimidate the family? Extract revenge? Or is he truly innocent and trying to restart his life?

The two most interesting choices the series makes – that helps set it apart from previous incarnations of this story – are opting to make Anna Max’s lawyer (in previous versions, it was the husband who was the former attorney and the wife was just collateral damage in what ensued) and taking steps to sew additional doubt in Max’s motivations by way of new characters. First, making Anna the potential source of Max’s ire changes the calculus of the story in radical ways. The story is now forced to become more psychological in nature – a quick look at Bardem and Adams next to one another tells you that any sort of physical altercation means Max absolutely destroying Anna – so the story is forced to really bide its time in setting up potential horrors for Anna to encounter. There’s also the added sexual undertone of it all – these are two attractive people. Max is very, very charming when he wants to be. Is it possible there was something there once upon a time? Is there something there now?

As for expanding Max’s character, instead of being the only potential threat to the Bowdens – and while the series makes it clear Max is dangerous, it never tips its hand one way or another on just how much danger he poses to the Bowdens through the episode I’ve seen thus far – Max encounters his own potential roadblocks. There’s a mysterious masked woman following him around. There’s a young woman who seems to be connected to Max who is doing her best to entice Natalie. But are these people connected to him? Are they working alone? Does Max have his own stalkers, trying to manipulate him? It certainly gives Bardem more to play than just a Cheshire cat smile and an imposing presence. And watching Max worry, fret, and lose the plot from time to time goes a long way to shading what could be a two-dimensional character into someone who we start to find intriguing. I won’t go so far to say we start to care about him, but there’s more heft to the role than one expects, and it makes him a much more interesting potential villain.

I say potential villain because the series also does one more interesting thing: It makes nearly every character in it morally gray (at best) and truly odious from time to time. The Bowdens aren’t likeable people. Anna is entitled, convinced she doesn’t deserve anything that befalls her as a results of the fallout from Max’s wrongful conviction – despite her telling him to take the deal because she thought he was guilty. Tom is a particularly tough piece of work, claiming that everyone is out to get him and his family, refusing to accept consequences for his or other’s actions, and just trying to weasel his way out of anything that comes his way – convinced he’s smarter than those around him and that his money can buy him what he needs. Natalie has some righteous anger, but she’s also incredibly spoiled (not that her parents really pay any attention to her). And Zack? Well, his parents aren’t willing to get him the mental health help he needs, so he’s a loose cannon constantly shooting off and damaging plenty of innocent people. After a couple of episodes, well, you’re hard-pressed to determine just who you should be rooting for here. And while I suspect the series wants us to be a bit wary of the Bowdens, I’m not sure it was hoping for complete apathy at them and their plight, which is where I ended up.

With the talent in front of and behind the camera, I suspect Apple was hoping this series would be a home run. Creepy, suspenseful, with twists and turns that would make people talk week in and week out. Instead, it’s a series that lacks a clear tone, compelling character, and with no one to root for (more than once I rolled my eyes and hoped someone would get killed for their utter stupidity in the face of clear danger), it’s hard to muster up much to recommend about Cape Fear. Bardem is doing his best to turn Max into something more than a boogieman, which is saying something considering how underwritten the role really is (a necessity since we need to keep guessing just what his endgame is until the end of the season). But if you’re looking for a good psychological thriller, might I recommend one of the earlier adaptations? I’ve heard they’re great. And they won’t cost you ten hours of your time.

Cape Fear premieres on June 5. Eight of the ten episodes were provided for review.