ironhorse_iv Review of The Fan

The Fan (1996)

Right off the bat. This movie didn't cover all its bases. Not quite hit a home run! Only semi watchable.

[6/10 · 11 March 2021]

It's time to step onto the plate. Although this 1996 American sports psychological thriller directed by Tony Scott received generally negative reviews from most critics and was a box office flop. The film based on the 1995 novel of the same name by Peter Abrahams haven't yet strike out with me. I found the story of a trouble baseball fan Gil Renard (Robert De Niro) slowly creeping into madness after getting disillusioned with his favorite ballpark player Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes), still in the ballpark. Even if Scott used the film as a guinea pig to experiment with edgy rock music video visuals and audio cues. While this movie's out of place heavy edited quick cuts with blurry glossy downgrade color filler images sequences with songs from Nine Inch Nails playing in the foreground is better suited for a gritty violent football thriller like 1999 'Any Given Sunday'. The film still makes it up to me due to the great performances of De Niro & Snipes. Don't get me wrong, I do know that the acting from these thespians was nothing new. Especially with De Niro known as the guy well verse in playing psychopaths and Snipes at the time as the near realistic sport athlete. However, scenes like where both leads play a friendly game of catch, only to find their characters slowly tensely intimating into exposing each other's true colors really shows both actors' range. Attaway Bobby! It's just too bad that the reasons how the individuals met up at the beach house was poorly written. Phoef Sutton's script has way too many forced and absurd over convenience events. Are we really supposed to believe that Gil was waiting outside in the right moment that a rogue wave would come just to get close to Bobby's family? That's outrageous. Then there is the poorly delivered third act kidnapping plot device. The film could had done better if Gil just wanted to rise Bobby's kid Sean (Brandon Hammond) as a trade-off because he rarely sees his own son Richie (Andrew J. Ferchland) and to get back at Bobby's so-called betrayal. It really seems out of character for Gil to threated to harm a child. The movie could had been stronger if we slowly get to see Renard manipulate Sean into seeing him as a father figure over Rayburn. It would had been really complex and intense. Sadly, we don't get that. Truth be told, a lot of the family dynamics from the source material seem to be missing here. It sucks because the movie could have painted the ways that Gil & Bobby react to home life a lot better. The fatherhood message of the film was somewhat lost because of that. As for the film's use of basing Rayburn on real-world parallels of Barry Bonds. I have mixed feelings about that. While having Rayburn's portrayal as an African-American baseball player for the San Francisco Giants rather than being white and playing for the Soxs from the novel was indeed blazing, unique and adds to the thrills. Still, it was indeed a bit disturbing and controversial to model him way too close on a real player. As it could had put Bonds in danger regardless if they make a in story joke about it. Nonetheless, it was nice to see a black actor as the lead protagonist. It was very rare to see at the time and still somewhat is. Although, if Snipes really got what he wanted. I really interested in what he could had brought as Gil squaring off with a Brat Pitt's Bobby Rayburn. As for supporting cast. I felt that Ellen Barkin's snarky role was really cut down compare to the book. In the novel, her character Jewel Stern did a lot more investigating once the crimes started to pile up. Still, I kinda glad the movie kept away from detouring too much into Gil's unrelated criminal activities. What they did with the Coop character was great. Charles Hallahan played him so well. The positive interaction with Sean during the baseball game. Top notch. Along with that, Benicio Del Toro as Juan Primo & John Leguizamo as Manny was also great in this movie despite certain scenes with them like whole hotel sauna magic number conflict being awkwardly shot or metaphorically dialogue about Babe Ruth being botch. It's also somewhat cool to see Jack Black cameo as a broadcast technician. Overall: As much as I love Americas Greatest Pastime films along with watching most of the performers. I can see why many people are not a fan of this movie. The visuals and audio cues are jarring, the plot is not particularly original and the climax is kinda weak. In the end, the film was certainly a foul ball.