The Fan

Although The Fan has a baseball setting with the late Candlestick Park in San Francisco, it's not a baseball story. It's the dual story of a fan obsessed with baseball and his favorite player and that same player and his performance anxiety living up to the huge amount of money the Giants are paying him.

The title role is played by Robert DeNiro and a lot of his character is taken from what Michael Douglas had earlier did in Falling Down. DeNiro is the son of the founder of the company he works for, but dad having passed away long ago, the company is in different hands. DeNiro is not cutting it as a salesman of hunting knives (no pun intended) and he's having problems with his former wife Patty D'Arbanville-Quinn over visitation with his son.

At the same time multi-million dollar acquisition Wesley Snipes is having problems living up to the hype and he's looking like a big old bust. Especially next to new Giant sensation Benicio DelToro who is carrying the team with what looks like a Most Valuable Player season. Snipes is only doing well on one front, his relationship with his young son.

As his life falls apart DeNiro starts fixating on his favorite player and what he can do to help motivate him. After that this film gets truly bizarre.

But DeNiro who probably has more disturbed characters under his creative belt than any other actor around today keeps it all real. He's matched by Wesley Snipes who plays a Barry Bonds like superstar who gets a good life lesson by the end of the film.

In fact Snipes realizes it before the film ends. As he quite realistically says, it's just a game, it's not like we're out there discovering a cure for cancer. The problem is that there are too many out there, fans like DeNiro in sports and in show business who get way too caught up in it.

Look also for nice performances by Ellen Barkin who has a sports phone-in show and John Leguizamo as Snipes's agent and the wisest guy he has around him.

Gil Renard is an unemployed knife salesman who has one burning ambition in life -- to be exposed as baseball's biggest fan, or, more accurately, as hitting sensation Bobby Rayburn's biggest fan. He will go to any length to protect his hero from the media and all other ramifications that stem from being paid an excessive $40,000,000 a year to play with the Giants. And this dedication to perfection, as his ex-boss puts it, is what leads to his partial schizophrenia and almost complete absorption into the world of an over-hyped celebrity. But when Renard realizes that his efforts and 'kindnesses' are not appreciated by his #1 idol, he turns on his role-model and viciously hunts him and his family down to the film's final climax.

7/10

Sports and Robert DeNiro together. I was in heaven...until I saw the movie It seemed like a great idea, but it just didn't quite work. A bit of a combination of an ordinary, if not over-necessarily creepy storyline, and an ordinary script. The movie revolves around Robert DeNiro's character, Gil, an over obsessed sports fan who decides he wants to play an active role in the career of Bobby (Wesley Snipes), in a performance that will be mentioned in the same sentence as "Passenger 57". Gil cracks when problems with his family and job explode, causing him to focus all his energies in Bobby. How far will Gil go to get what he wants? See it to find out.

Pretty disappointed with this movie, although it features one of my favourite scenes ever when Gil and Bobby have a little game of baseball near the end.

While I agree with some of the previous comments about the lack of attention to detail and the confusing cinematography, I really did enjoy this movie. The story itself is not particularly original and the ending is weak -- but I thought the build-up of Gil's (De Niro) character to be quite effective. Although Gil was what one would typically label a loser, I couldn't help but feel for the guy. Many movies about psychos/stalkers fail to give you any insight into why he's doing all these bad things -- all you know is that he's not a nice guy. This movie did a great job of portraying how Gil's volatile personality, his obsession with the baseball and with Bobby (Snipes) in particular, and his loss of everything else that mattered to him, ultimately led him to do what he did.

This movie wasn't as bad as everyone says. I think it's safe to say that I am a fan of Robert De Niro, and that will certainly help if you like Robert De Niro to enjoy this movie. But I didn't enjoy this movie solely on the fact that I like De Niro, I thought Snipes gave an equally choice performance. The thrills in this movie were small, but they were satisfying. The ending is, without a doubt, the best part. There were other good thrills though, like the freezer scene.

I must say that I liked this movie a good deal. Its is not without its flaws, but in order to enjoy this movie, and a lot of other movies for that matter, you must look past the flaws, and just take it for what it is. Enjoy this movie for its handful of thrills, decent acting, and great music (I am a big fan of the Rolling Stones also). This is a good no-brainer with a creepy overtone, so just watch it for its pros, not its cons. 8/10