Review and news hub for movies, music and video games

Movie:		6.0
Picture:		7.0
Sound:		6.0
Extras:		5.0
Score:		6.0

Director(s):	Gregory Hoblit
Writer(s):	William Diehl (Novel) , Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman (Screenplay)
Starring:	Ed Norton • Laura Linney • Richard Gere
Genre:	Drama
Release Date:	March 10, 2009
Rated:

List Price:	DVD - $13.49 ; Blu-ray - $19.99
Amazon:

Back in the day before every award season became seemingly bogged down with somber, serious holocaust dramas and the Oscar-baiting music industry biopic, the quickest way to the top of the prestige ladder circa mid-nineties was via the courtroom drama. There was no surer way to garner critical acclaim and mass audience swooning than a fist pounding "objection" on a mahogany legal bench. As Nicholson famously espoused, we "can't handle the truth," but as an audience, before syndicated cable TV beat the concept to death, we were suckers for it. Enter: Primal Fear.

High-class Chicago attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) believes in the letter and the spirit of the law. It doesn't matter to him if his defendant is a mob racketeer suing the state on a trumped up police brutality beef, it's all about the principle (and 40% of any settlement, of course). A Catholic Archbishop is brutally hacked to death in his mansion, an inexplicable coded message carved into his chest and a young, seemingly harmless choirboy Aaron (Ed Norton) is apprehended covered in blood. What does it all mean?

Jumping on such a high profile case pro bono, Vail finds a slow, stammering, confused boy with an apparent history of blackouts who simply can't explain himself beyond the vague assertion that there was someone else in the room. On the other side of the case is Janet Venable (Laura Linney), the headstrong prosecuting attorney who herself has a history with Veil, in the courtroom and the bedroom. It looks like an open and shut case with the press dubbing Aaron "The Butcher Boy of St. Michaels," but of course it's never that simple and Veil is soon neck deep in a larger mystery involving charitable foundations, shady property investments and out of pocket city officials with secrets to hide.

Director Gregory Hoblit and scripters Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman had between them cut their teeth on the likes of NYPD Blue and LA Law; for them this is an exercise in lean, efficient, leading storytelling. Whether it's Vail detailing the golden rule about getting personally involved (foreshadowing later on when he -- shocker -- does so himself) or Aaron's seeming inability to comprehend the gravity of his situation, there is nothing here that's not deeply significant. The problem is the dramatic weight stems from a legal house of cards that while unquestionably clever is just plain nonsense. Tense, beautifully scripted back-and-fourths between Vail and Venable teasing the viewer as to what ace the other might be holding certainly make good dramatic fodder, but are ultimately meaningless when any passing Law & Order fan knows about such things as the right of disclosure.

Even before issues of sexual abuse are raised and the inimitably dodgy plot device of multiple personalities is introduced, there is, between the attorneys and legal aides, enough evidence tampering, witness intimidation and general professional misconduct for ten mistrials. To be fair, back when the film was made and the William Diehl novel it's based on written, you could happily get away with this kind of thing. But today, when every TV junkie is an armchair legal expert, you can't play as fast and loose with the rules like this and expect to get away with it.

In terms of casting, Richard Gere is of course effortless as the arrogant, cocksure legal eagle who has made a career out of being the smartest guy in the room but is now coming up short on hard evidence despite his smoke and mirror skills. Laura Linney is a decent foil as the determined prosecutor who irritates Vail by flaunting something he wants but can't have; she is equally motivated by simply being able to take something away from him. The real revelation here is of course Norton who, so fresh faced, landed an Oscar nomination for this his big screen debut as the timid field mouse whose eyes betray a rage filled protector he doesn't even know exists.

While it might be something of a cop out, this is probably an excellent book where pages allow much more musing on the moral ambiguities and intensive psychobabble. But stripped down like this in script format, it's impossible to disguise the contrivance at hand. Ultimately, in spite of a strong cast doing their damndest, it's hard to care about the outcome - especially considering how much effort is required to follow the numerous twists and turns and the inordinate amount of time the film takes to reach a climax that's more absurd than it is profound.

Blu-ray Bonus Features

Extras include the original trailer, and a somewhat dry yack track by Hoblit, Biderman, Producer Gary Luchessi, Executive Producer Hawk Koch and Casting Director Deborah Aquila. "Primal Fear: The Final Verdict" is less informative and descends into one of those insufferable featurettes where the actors and director sit around and talk about how great it was to work with each other, and how fantastic so-and-so was, etc. There is also a casting background that explains how the then unknown Edward Norton was drafted in as the lynch pin to the story. The real gem here is "The Psychology of Guilt" featurette, in which a series of psychiatric and legal talking heads one by one lay out in detail what an absurd notion the whole multiple personality disorder as a legal defense actually is, which is really the last thing you want to accompany a movie such as this one.