Let me ask you a question. If you had James Spader, Aidan Quinn and Peter Coyote in your cast, would you make Matt Davis the star of your film? How is that supposed to work? How is a young actor virtually no one has ever heard of like Davis supposed to avoid getting blown off the screen every time he's in a scene with one of those veteran performers? It's like trying to build a house where three sides are made of brick and one side is made of straw. You can't blame Davis for that. He didn't give himself the part. These filmmakers had the money/connections/Columbian nose candy to get Spader, Quinn and Coyote in their motion picture, but then the best they could get for the most important role in the whole shebang is Matt Davis? What, was Urkel from "Family Matters" unavailable? How about Screech from "Saved by the Bell"? Did Adrian Zmed not return any phone calls? Shadow Of Fear certainly has other problems, but this thing never had a chance to be any good due to such an inexplicable imbalance in experience and star power.
Harrison French (Matt Davis) is a young businessman who just lost a big deal. Driving home in the rain he hits and kills a guy, whom he drags into the woods and tries to forget about. Two fairly unbelievable coincidences prevent that from happening. One, it turns out the guy Harrison killed robbed a bank that very morning. Two, it seems the guy was also the brother of Harrison's erratic wife (Robin Tunney). Desperate for help, Harrison turns to the enigmatic William Ashbury (James Spader), who promises to help Harrison avoid the dogged pursuit of Detective Scofield (Aidan Quinn). But it turns out Ashbury has some very unusual ideas of what constitutes "help". Throw in the disapproving father of Harrison's wife (Peter Coyote) and a sister-in-law (Lacey Chabert) who wants to jump Harrison's bones, and that's Shadow Of Fear.
I can't say Matt Davis does an awful job in this movie because Harrison French is such a worthless character that all but the best would be hamstrung in their performance. Harrison has no discernible personality and before the audience sees enough of him to ever know that, he's introduced first as a loser in his career and then as the sort of bastard who will negligently murder somebody and cover it up to protect himself. And he's the HERO of this affair.
The only interesting thing about Shadow Of Fear is William Ashbury, both because Spader is always interesting and because the character is like the Star Trek Mirror Universe version of the hero of a Stephen J. Cannell TV show, if that makes any sense. Ashbury assists rich and powerful men in covering up their misdeeds, then punishes them by making their repeat their sins over and over until they're sick of them. Oh, and he also appears to hit on their wives and young daughters. Why he does it all and to what end is never explained or even hinted at, but there's something intriguing about a character who could very easily be a good guy instead made out to be a villain. It's also amusing to see how incredulous Ashbury is at the end to be taken down by such a nonentity as Harrison, largely because it comes off equally as Spader's incredulousness at how his talent has gone to waste in this turkey.
If Robin Tunney and Lacey Chabert had gotten naked and Davis had been replaced by someone capable of standing up to his older co-stars, Shadow Of Fear might have made an implausible but tolerable pot boiler. As it is, it's like a ship that sinks 30 seconds after its been launched from the docks.
Harrison French (Matt Davis) is a young businessman who just lost a big deal. Driving home in the rain he hits and kills a guy, whom he drags into the woods and tries to forget about. Two fairly unbelievable coincidences prevent that from happening. One, it turns out the guy Harrison killed robbed a bank that very morning. Two, it seems the guy was also the brother of Harrison's erratic wife (Robin Tunney). Desperate for help, Harrison turns to the enigmatic William Ashbury (James Spader), who promises to help Harrison avoid the dogged pursuit of Detective Scofield (Aidan Quinn). But it turns out Ashbury has some very unusual ideas of what constitutes "help". Throw in the disapproving father of Harrison's wife (Peter Coyote) and a sister-in-law (Lacey Chabert) who wants to jump Harrison's bones, and that's Shadow Of Fear.
I can't say Matt Davis does an awful job in this movie because Harrison French is such a worthless character that all but the best would be hamstrung in their performance. Harrison has no discernible personality and before the audience sees enough of him to ever know that, he's introduced first as a loser in his career and then as the sort of bastard who will negligently murder somebody and cover it up to protect himself. And he's the HERO of this affair.
The only interesting thing about Shadow Of Fear is William Ashbury, both because Spader is always interesting and because the character is like the Star Trek Mirror Universe version of the hero of a Stephen J. Cannell TV show, if that makes any sense. Ashbury assists rich and powerful men in covering up their misdeeds, then punishes them by making their repeat their sins over and over until they're sick of them. Oh, and he also appears to hit on their wives and young daughters. Why he does it all and to what end is never explained or even hinted at, but there's something intriguing about a character who could very easily be a good guy instead made out to be a villain. It's also amusing to see how incredulous Ashbury is at the end to be taken down by such a nonentity as Harrison, largely because it comes off equally as Spader's incredulousness at how his talent has gone to waste in this turkey.
If Robin Tunney and Lacey Chabert had gotten naked and Davis had been replaced by someone capable of standing up to his older co-stars, Shadow Of Fear might have made an implausible but tolerable pot boiler. As it is, it's like a ship that sinks 30 seconds after its been launched from the docks.