Cape Fear review: Amy Adams and Javier Bardem’s immaculate update

'Ever look around and wonder if we deserve all this?' a woman asks by the swimming pool; her husband replies, 'No.' This is the latest screen incarnation of John D MacDonald's taut psychological thriller, published in 1957 as The Executioners and adapted for the third time as Cape Fear.

The first film, from 1962, paired Robert Mitchum with Gregory Peck, and Martin Scorsese's 1991 remake matched Nick Nolte with a truly terrifying Robert De Niro. Nick Antosca's 10-part series rethinks the story for a more complicated age. Amy Adams and Patrick Wilson play lawyers Anna and Tom Bowden, while Javier Bardem seems to be having the absolute time of his life as Max Cady — charming, momentarily sympathetic and then terrifying in a performance that may become definitive.

In this version Cady was jailed for life for killing his wife after Anna advised him to plead guilty; she later married his prosecutor, Tom, and 17 years on Cady has been exonerated by new evidence.

cape fear, amy adams, javier bardem, nick antosca, patrick wilson, max cady, the executioners, martin scorsese, robert de, robert mitchum