Gil Renard (Robert De Niro) is an ardent baseball fan, so ardent he borders on the insane. His focus of attention is Bobby Rayburn (Wesley Snipes) and watches the player’s move like a crazed stalker. The turn in the plot takes place when Bobby signs up a huge contract with the San Francisco Giants; wherein from there on everything goes downhill. His field play deteriorates with each play and his batting average goes way below expected. To add to his woes his chief team rival is murdered mysteriously and discovers that Gil starts to interfere himself in every aspect of his life.
Gil believes he is doing Bobby a favor by dictating his moves but when the psychopathic nature of Gil crosses into Bobby’s family the situation gets scary.
De Niro is obviously to watch out for, while Snipes evokes quite and controlled fury as a man torn between career and family. Comic timing and added support comes in from John Leguizamo as an agent for ballplayers, and Ellen Barkin as a sports media commentator.
‘The Fan’, Tonight on Powerplay, After The 9 PM Movie at 11:25pm.
