Primal Fear (Gregory Hoblit, 1996)

Flashy lawyer Martin Vail (Richard Gere) is defending a young man who has been accused of killing an archbishop. When he realises that his client has a split personality, Martin has to work out a strategy that will enable him to save him from the death penalty.

I remember the poster from this movie being in my English teacher’s room. The only other thing I knew about it was that it brought Edward Norton to Hollywood’s attention. This is a long way of saying that I have had no real interest in watching this movie.

However, I have been re-visiting thrillers from the 90s and this one was on Netflix.I also really like Richard Gere as an actor, particularly when he plays morally complicated men. I have had no strong desire to watch this movie, but Gere's name drew me in.

The parts of this movie are great.

Gere plays a flashy lawyer who juggles love of the money and press with a desperate need to believe that his client is innocent. It is a contradiction that the script does not make that believable, but Gere’s slickness and faux charm makes it almost believable.

The big obstacle he faces is also intriguing: because criminal proceedings have been initiated, he cannot plead an insanity defense. This forces the character to think outside of the box, and use what he knows of the prosecuting attorney and legal grey areas to engineer a positive outcome for his client.

Looking at the cast for this movie, I was reminded of how prestigious these kinds of adult thrillers were. They were basically high-class versions of genre movies - peppered with violence and sex, but packed with big name actors and filmmakers. it is a genre that is basically dead at the multiplex.

While Norton got all the plaudits at the time, the performer who really popped for me was Laura Linney as Gere's rival, Janet Venable. She  is in her own struggle with the corrupt DA who wants to use the case for his own interests, and Linney plays that struggle so well, despite some of the gymnastics the script forces her through.

Here is where I have to clarify my own feelings on the movie as a whole, because I think Linney's character is a big part of it.

Despite the things I mentioned, I had a bit of trouble getting into this one - there is a weird flatness to the direction and the story's stakes that I could not get a finger on.

I think there is something missing from Gere's character - script-wise not in terms of performance. I never believed the contradiction of this character. There is a moral dimension to his lawyering (that's a verb) which i just could not believe.

Gere is presented as such a facile and manipulative figure for such a long portion of the runtime that the revelation that he wants to believe that people are innocent just comes off as self-serving. The film wants to present a character who has lost himself to the darkness, but has a kernel of decency that he holds onto. However, he never comes across as anything other than an ambulance chaser.

 

Ebert said this movie mistakes extra subplots for complexity and I would agree. I think the filmmakers are trying to present Gere's character as a sympathetic figure through his support of a former client who is trying to keep his restaurant - but it just feels incidental.

Tying it back to Laura Linney's character, I felt like the movie gives a stronger sense of the pressure she is under. We get repeated scenes of Janet having the corrupt states attorney (played by Frasier's dad, John Mahoney) threatening her. Her interactions with Gere's Vail also come off as one-sided. She has no power, and part of Vail's strategy is to use that against her.

In turn that nudges him away from coming off as 'complicated' to just a bad guy. Which robs the final twist of its impact.

Primal Fear is not bad. But it is a perfect example of the kind of middle-of-the-road adult thriller that they do not make any more. I would recommend it over the other 90s thriller I'm reviewing this month. There is a bit more meat on the bones here.