Steve Walker (William Petersen) has a beautiful home, car, and family. It seems like a perfect life until his teenaged daughter (Reese Witherspoon) starts dating David (Mark Wahlberg). Suddenly, David is involved in every facet of Steve's life, making out with his daughter, flirting with his wife (Amy Brenneman), playing with his dog (Banner). Steve tries to establish some boundaries but that only makes David seem more appealing. When David does reveal himself to be a violent manipulator, Steve can't even get help. The police need actual evidence, not just a father's hunch. Steve decides to take matters into his own hands, which backfires spectacularly, and leads to a deadly showdown.
Every frame of this movie was written for and filmed for men. It's supposed to be about Nichole, the daughter, and her realization that her first boyfriend is an abusive asshole, but it's not. It mostly follows the dad and his insecurities and fears about the women in his life. It very much treats Nichole and Laura, the wife, as Steve's property that is threatened and must be defended. Even though Steve mostly sucks at it. And his stupid posturing almost gets his entire family killed. In fact, it is Laura, Nichole, and Laura's son Toby (Christopher Gray) who act rationally and save themselves. So you could read the last ten minutes as the triumph of feminism over toxic masculinity, but that's an extraordinarily generous take. This is Fatal Attraction by way of Cape Fear (the remake with DeNiro, not Savalas). And we're not even going to talk about how Witherspoon and Alyssa Milano are shot in nothing but micro-minis, bikinis, or underwear.
Fear is tacky, tasteless, late 90s garbage and should be avoided at all costs, and yet it's streaming on HBO Max.
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