Rent The Fan on Amazon Video (paid link) // Buy the book (paid link)
Written by: Peter Abrahams (book), Phoef Sutton (screenplay)
Directed by: Tony Scott
Starring: Robert De Niro, Wesley Snipes, Ellen Barkin, John Leguizamo, Benicio Del Toro
Rated: R
Watch the trailer
Plot
An all star baseball player becomes the unhealthy focus of a down on his luck salesman.
Verdict
This is the typical obsessed fan story. This time it's baseball themed, but there's a better story buried in this. It should be shorter and it takes too long to get started. The problem with the antagonist is that this doesn't do much to humanize him. We get the slightest of catalysts for his descent into madness, but the guy was deranged from the start. Making him even a bit more interesting would certainly help. Within a few minutes of seeing him we know he's going to do something unhinged.
Skip it.
Review
Major League Baseball star Cal Ripken Jr. served as a consultant on the film. I'm guessing he helped the actors look more authentic, because this isn't really a baseball movie. Most baseball scenes are closeups to hide the lack of believable action, though Wesley Snipes played a baseball player previously in Major League.
Exuberant Giants fan Gil (Robert De Niro) can't wait for opening day where his team's newest player Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) will hopefully lead the team to the playoffs. Gil is a disgruntled knife salesman. It really seems like the Giants are the only thing in his life. This movie provides Gil with so many red flags that you're not surprised when he becomes obsessive and violent. I want this to give Gil a few human qualities so he feels like a human being and not a cartoon.
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| Robert De Niro plays Gil Renard |
Bobby is the big ego ballplayer that has lived up to the hype. Bobby isn't very likable either, but that seems like a plot design. Bobby meets a kid in a hospital that asks for a home run. As cheesy as that ask is, it's just so Bobby can be annoyed and give us another reason not to like him.
Gil is the obsessive fan that goes off the rails. This story has been made many times before. I get what this is setting up, but this takes so long into it when we know Gil is deranged. He's been confrontational and antagonistic since the beginning, so there's no question of where this will go. Because of that this takes too long to get started.
While there are many baseball scenes, none of them really capture the
action. It's closeups, I'm guessing to cover for the actors that can't
play, but you'd think this would get some minor leaguers for a couple of
wider action shots. The movie does mention actual baseball player Barry Bonds who played for the Giants, which is strange since we never see him on the team or field. The movie talks about Bobby and Primo being the best players on the team, but Barry would have been. I don't know why this even mentions Barry. I assumed it was an alternate world until that point.
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| Wesley Snipes plays Bobby Rayburn |
This is fan obsession looking at this one sided connection fans have with athletes. Gil thinks he knows Bobby, but Bobby doesn't know Gil. Despite the articles and stats Gil has no doubt obsessed over, he doesn't really know Bobby. The scenes with Bobby show us he's not an outstanding person. What the fans see is a carefully orchestrated facade.
Gil talks about how he played ball, but with some other stories it makes you wonder what's true. Gil's obsession culminates to actually meeting Bobby. I don't know why Bobby remains civil despite how strange Gil acts. I suppose it's just movie magic.
We've seen stories about obsessive fans, all this does is change the setting while making the story so much longer than it needs to be. The movie has a style with close up shots and dramatic lighting. It remains intense, but the story fails this. It's a missed opportunity to not give us any reason to like Gil. That wouldn't justify his actions, but it would at least give us on reason to root for him before he betrays us.
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