And still more Nicolas Roeg/Theresa Russell completism. Things open abruptly with Gary Oldman playing statues, thumb out, at the end of a bridge over the overtly marked Cape Fear River, John Lennon's Mother (1970) blaring in our space but not his. Russell soon appears in very 1980s active leisurewear fashion (hair, workout gear, bright colours, padded shoulders, braces on her teeth, a bit too much shape, dodgy Southern accent, facial expressions that do not reach the eyes) with friend Arlanda (the same but more so). She's somehow married to gerontologist Christopher Lloyd who is more interested in Sandra Bernhard and trains. This is her A Woman Under the Influence (1974). Seymour Cassel as Lloyd's boss bridges this and the Cassavettes universes.
Notionally a psychothriller but without flow; the tone is uneven and things are sufficiently cracked and disjointed (as usual with Roeg) that you have to wonder if he's actually trying for that effect (of not expecting us to suspend disbelief). The one time they cast Russell an age-appropriate bloke, well, they make him her son! — inevitably and obviously with oedipal and arrested-development implications. Oldman's performance reminded me of his unregulated punk efforts in Sid and Nancy (1986) but even more so of Udo Kier in The Kingdom (1994, 1997), and Lloyd's model trains of Europa (1991). So at least Lars von Trier paid attention. And perhaps Aronofsky. Unfathomably I have yet to see the original Cape Fear (1962) with Robert Mitchum so I missed all those references.
Roger Ebert: three stars. Not disappointing! I beg to differ. Janet Maslin. "[T]he direction is so laden with contempt for the characters." Silly. Produced by Beatle George Harrison. Written by Dennis Potter.
