Primal Fear

Plot

Martin Vail, a top-rated defence attorney takes on a high profile case pro bono – the brutal murder of a famous priest by a seemingly mentally challenged altar boy Aaron. As the case deepens, who the priest was ‘behind closed doors’ becomes darker – and who Aaron is does too.

Direction

The direction from 1990’s Director Gregory Hoblit is sound, with some moments of supreme violence (near the start of the film) and some good choices of camera work – like the close-up shots of Aaron when the ‘first’ twist is revealed and some ‘God’s view’ near the end. While not as complex as I’ve seen him do in other films, it was still solid.

Cast/Characters

A fairly congested and stacked cast – has Richard Gere front and centre as Vail. He portrays the character very well, and goes through ranges of emotions throughout the film.

Edward Norton is really the standout in the film (If you know, you know), who surprisingly has limited screen time, and is billed fairly low down the list.

There are some solid female characters, making it somewhat progressive (Alfre Woodard playing the judge, Laura Linney playing Janet, opposition council and not a love interest, and Oscar winner Frances McDormand as Aaron’s psychiatrist.

Secondary cast members also include the late John Mahoney, Andre Braugher.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

There are many themes throughout the film – such as innocence (is Aaron really guilty of murder?), good and evil (Vail is inherently a good man – but works with and for bad people, corruption (the priest who works in the community – but behind closed doors was not as noble as he appears.

The poster itself quotes ‘sooner or later a man who wears two faces forgets which one is real’ and this is true for Aaron, Martin and the victim.

There is more to the narrative than just Aaron’s potential innocence (and the two twists that are revealed throughout the film.

Janet’s constant smoking in places she is not allowed too is a bit strange – I wonder if this was in and around the time ‘indoor’ smoking bans were coming into effect, but it felt strange to add to her arc.

I felt there was a little too much use of the ‘f’ word – where it was just added because it was an (American) R rated movie. In Australia it was given the equivalent MA

Overall

While I’ve known the ‘twists’ since not long after it was released – this was embarrassingly my first time watching this all the way through. I quite enjoyed it, and would have been gobsmacked if I had watched this back then. This was around the time the ‘twist’ ending was popular, and this ranks in one of the top twists.

Definitely give this one a watch if you haven’t already!

4/5