Primal Fear

Primal Fear casts Richard Gere as Martin Vail, a hotshot attorney who agrees to represent a teenager (Edward Norton’s Aaron Stampler) accused of murdering a priest – with the film subsequently detailing both the trial that ensues and Vail’s efforts at discovering the truth about his client. Primal Fear, for the most part, comes off as a fairly typical legal thriller, as director Gregory Hoblit, working from Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman’s screenplay, has infused the proceedings with many of the elements that one has come to associate with the genre – including a slick protagonist who is forcefully taken down a notch and a wide-eyed defendant who may not be quite as innocent as he seems. It’s due primarily to the efforts of the stellar cast, then, that the movie remains surprisingly watchable from start to finish, with Gere’s expectedly commanding turn matched by an eclectic roster of periphery performers that includes, among others, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, and Terry O’Quinn. There’s little doubt, however, that it’s Edward Norton who establishes himself as the film’s most valuable player, as the actor, making his cinematic debut here, does a superb job of stepping into the shoes of an increasingly complicated figure – with the majority of the movie’s electrifying moments stemming from Norton’s star-making performance (eg Aaron’s violent jailhouse confrontation with Gere’s character). And although scripters Shagan and Biderman place a continuing emphasis on curiously needless subplots – eg the ongoing problems surrounding a nearby housing project – Primal Fear ultimately lives up to its reputation as a solid drama that’s elevated on an all-too-consistent basis by Norton’s impressively hypnotic work.

*** out of ****