Cape Fear: The Devil Wears Javier Bardem (review)

Carried by the incredible charisma of the Iberian star and the most effective mechanisms of the genre, this television remake revitalizes the revenge thriller and manages to forge a real identity.

He was born to play Max Cady.

Sixty years after Robert Mitchum (in the 1962 film) and thirty-five years after Robert De Niro in Martin Scorsese’s remake released in 1991, it is Javier Bardem’s turn to play the fascinating psychopath born in John D. MacDonald’s novel. In Cape Fear, which begins today on Apple TV, the Spanish actor takes on this evil figure who has become a cinema legend, released from prison to take revenge.

Convicted of murdering his pregnant wife, Max Cady emerges from 17 years behind bars after finally being exonerated. A confinement that broke him as much as it shaped him. Returning to freedom, he has only one objective: to make his former lawyer pay, today a fulfilled wife, model mother, and defender of the oppressed in the face of the American judicial machine. Slowly but surely, Cady will infiltrate his life to better tear it apart.

The new serial version allows you to completely reinvent the character. In the guise of a rarely inhabited Bardem, Nick Antosca (creator of other mini-series of the same genre such as The Act or Candy) delivers a nervous and contemporary rereading of this great thriller classic. Where previous versions made Cady an almost animal threat, this new reading transforms him into a more ambiguous figure. A damaged man, convinced of having been destroyed by the system, and whose savage vengefulness suddenly takes on the appearance of a quest for justice. Max Cady has the air of an American Monte Cristo, which we almost want to support as Javier Bardem bewitches us.

Impressive, irresistible, the Iberian star is capable of going from a disarming charm to a chilling coldness, rediscovering the dark strength of the James Bond villain he played in Skyfall. Javier Bardem plays a Cady so elusive that we would like to give him the good Lord without confession… before calling an exorcist in the process. His gaze, his disturbing calm, his way of dominating each face-to-face encounter transform the character into a true psychological predator. A very high-level performance, which will inevitably be reminiscent – minus the haircut – of the one that the actor delivered for the Coens in No Country for Old Men (Oscar to boot).

The only problem for the series is that Javier Bardem devours everything around him. Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson – and their horrible children – struggle to exist in the shadow of Max Cady’s immense presence. The series thus slides from pure thriller towards a more murky reflection on justice and vendetta, seeking at all costs to never lose sight of the nagging tension which gave all their vigor to the previous Nerves on the Edge. To achieve this, the production brought out some Hitchcockian staging gimmicks which had already nourished the two films. Without forgetting, of course, the famous music of Bernard Herrmann, whose scathing brass instruments continue to grip us with fear half a century later.

But after a few hours, experienced by this psychological labyrinth which seems to have no way out, we feel that Cape Fear is dragging on, by dint of reshaping the plot of the original novel and stringing together too many outdated twists to go the distance, damaging in the process the feverish suspense inherent in the terrifying premise. The revenge then seems to go in all directions and the rhythm ends up expanding. But Bardem’s performance never lets go. A new generation Max Cady, less caricatured, but even more disturbing – and undoubtedly the best incarnation of the character to date.

Cape Fear, mini-series in 10 episodes to watch on Apple TV, from Friday June 5, 2026 (and also in France via MyCanal).