Alex Winter, writer and director of Fever, had just flown in from the

States and appeared at the Metro (jet-lagged and 'flu-ridden) to

introduce the film.....no surprises there, he is exactly as I imagined.

Please note...in this review, I shall include one or two SPOILERS,

needed to describe Teri's role as Charlotte and to better explain Nick's

apparant descent into insanity. What I shall not do is to reveal the

denouement or events leading to it as this would destroy the tensions

built up in the film.

          Charlotte runs an art gallery, Nick (her brother, played by "ET's"

Henry Thomas) is a drawing teacher and their family is made up of

father, his second wife and Nick's brother. The film opens with a

dark and brooding 30 minutes or so, to set the scene in Nick's

unhappy and depressed life spent in a 'Hellhole' apartment in

a run-down area of the Bronx.

          To remind you of the broad plot outline, Nick is annoyed to find

that the room above his is very audibly occupied in spite of an

'arrangement' with the landlord for it to remain empty. He attempts

to persuade the uncooperative tenant to move elsewhere, without

success. Shortly afterwards, his landlord is murdered after a public

argument with an abusive man in arrears with his rent. This man was

thrown out onto the street and becomes a prime suspect for the murder.

When the police send a detective to interview Nick, his (Nick's)

agitated behaviour sows the seeds of suspicion, especially when the

detective sees a painting of Nick as a youngster, a painting done by

his mother (before her premature death by overdose) which looks

more like Bela Lugosi on a bad day and is the product of a disturbed

mind. Nick mentions his mysterious tenant upstairs, but no trace can be

found when they go to talk with him.

          Enter Charlotte....during one of Nick's classes, he is given a message

that she would like to speak to him and visits her gallery. During their

talk, she asks if he is alright ( he is red-eyed and unshaven from lack

of sleep and the effects of some 'blip-vert' flashback visions of the

murder) and during a later visit to his apartment asks him to join the

family for dinner to take his mind off his problems.

The dinner starts uncomfortably for him (he feels that his father and

step-mother have tried to suppress all memories of his mother) and

ends in an outburst after which he leaves the house. There follows an

event which will return to haunt him in the closing stages of the film.

As a result, he is found later wandering the streets by the police and

collapses completely for 3 days, awakening in his family's house.

Charlotte reassures him and asks him to stay and work there for a while.

He agrees and seems to be on the mend until the police turn up, at which

point he panics and runs.

          Variety said of Fever at Cannes that the "air of intelligence and sharp

craftsmanship extends to its performances." Teri's is certainly to be

included here.

         From a technical point of view, Fever is superb. The darkness of early

footage is replaced by well-lit, colourful scenes of anything involving

the family (delusion as against reality?)...and all of Teri's are

beautifully shot. She has the hairstyle seen in Frasier (that episode was

only a few weeks before Fever) and looks good. Alex used many unusual

Peter Wilkes (thfan)

(skippy@mech.soton.ac.uk)