Fear

By EMANUEL LEVY

A Universal release of an Imagine Entertainment presentation of a Brian Grazer production. Produced by Grazer, Ric Kidney. Executive producer, Karen Kehela. Directed by James Foley. Screenplay, Christopher Crowe.
 
David McCall ... Mark Wahlberg Nicole Walker ... Reese Witherspoon Steve Walker ... William Petersen Laura Walker ... Amy Brenneman Margo Masse ... Alyssa Milano Toby ... Christopher Gray Gary Rohmer ... Todd Caldecott Logan ... Tracy FraimHacker ... Gary John Riley
 

In the opening scenes, scripter Christopher Crowe paints in brief strokes a portrait of a contempo family besieged by various tensions. The wonderful Reese Witherspoon plays Nicole Walker, an attractive teenager living with her architect father, Steve (William Petersen), stepmother Laura (Amy Brenneman) and stepbrother Toby (Christopher Gray). Naively romantic Nicole dreams of being swept away by that "special" man, one who's virile and sensitive.

Her ideal seems to materialize in the figure of David (Wahlberg), a sexy charmer she meets at a "rave" party she attends with Margo (Alyssa Milano), her thrill-seeking best friend.

David courts Nicole in a polite, respectful manner -- their initial encounters are quietly intimate and sexually charged in a tone that's reminiscent of Treat Williams' seduction of Laura Dern in "Smooth Talk." With her parents conveniently out of town, Nicole gives David the alarm code and late one night, while she's asleep, he enters into the house and consummates their relationship.

It doesn't take long however, for David to reveal his darker, psychotic side. Observing Nicole innocently hugging her classmate Gary (Todd Caldecott), David angrily slaps her and brutally beats Gary. All along, Nicole's dad senses that something is wrong with David, who's not in school and appears to have no past. An investigation discloses David is far from being the "Leave It to Beaver" kid he pretends to be. What follows is yet another variation of amour fou, underlined by such primal instincts as fixation and vengeance.

In the first hour, the story perceptively discerns tensions that might plague ordinary modern families: A father who's ambiguous about his daughter's inevitable independence, petrified she'll get mixed up with the wrong guy; a sexually ripe daughter who needs to escape her father's clutches; latent competition between an attractive stepmother who's not much older than her stepdaughter; and macho rivalry between a sexually potent young man and an aging father.

But after the initial ground-laying, the film follows the familiar path of its genre, with shrewdly if also predictably planted twists and turns. The thriller telegraphs most of its suspense payoffs, and the audience is almost always ahead of the game.

What's most disappointing is that the characters begin as well-etched individuals, but are gradually turned into mere plot functions.

Worse yet, "Fear" shamelessly borrows from numerous thrillers of the last decade. Hence, "Fatal Attraction's" scary roller coaster scene is repeated (though for a different purpose), and the cooked rabbit is replaced by a dog. And in a nod to Robert De Niro's creepy sociopath in "Cape Fear," David not only tattoos his chest, but tortures his victims with similarly terrifying brutality.

Bent on revenge when he's forbidden to see Nicole, David and his hoodlum friends begin a deadly assault on the Walker family. In the explosive showdown, the Walkers, like movie families before them, must come together to fight for their lives. The only surprise in the bloody finale is the more assertive role allotted not only to the women but to the children.

Witherspoon, who was so memorably touching in "The Man in the Moon," inhabits the central role with such charming ease and credibility that young women will readily identify with her. She's strongly supported by Wahlberg, who's quite convincing as the gentleman caller from hell.

Foley's stylishly elegant and efficient direction is at least a notch above the material's level, effectively imbuing ordinary human interactions with highly charged emotional tensions. With the exception of the climax, which is too blatant and manipulative, "Fear" bears the polished sheen typical of Imagine productions, with strong contributions from Thomas Kloss' lensing and Alex McDowell's vivid production design.

Camera (DeLuxe color, Panavision widescreen), Thomas Kloss; editor, David Brenner; music, Carter Burwell; music supervision, Danny Bramson; production design, Alex McDowell; art direction, Richard Hudolin; set decoration , D. Fauquet-Lemaitre; costume design, Kirsten Everberg; sound (DTS Stereo), Eric J. Batut; associate producer, Karen Snow; assistant director, David Householter; casting, Debra Zane. Reviewed at Universal Studios, Universal City, April 4, 1996. MPAA Rating: R. Running time: 96 min.