FEAR no stars

Although she's perfectly adequate in her role I don't think anyone would have predicted Oscar success for Reese Witherspoon after seeing FEAR. She's a teenage girl who discovers her new boyfriend, (Mark Wahlberg), isn't quite as nice as he first appears. This was an early part for Wahlberg, too and he shows real promise. Unfortunately the script makes him a fairly conventional villain and you can see what's coming a mile off. Nevertheless, he's still the best thing in the film. James Foley directs without much flair or imagination; this is very much a paint-by-numbers kind of psycho thriller but at least it has no pretensions and basically it does exactly what it says on the tin.