"Primal Fear" (1996)
By Yahoo! Movie User on
Sun, Feb 10, 2008 3:17 PM EST
A cliche-ridden jumble guilty of impersonating a mystery/thriller.
Tell me if you've heard this one before...
Richard Gere plays Martin Vail, a hotshot Chicago lawyer who begins to have a crisis of conscience over whether or not the people he defends in court truly deserve to be saved. And, despite opening the film with an interview and asking the interviewer..."This is a cover story, right"...starts to question if he might be taking these high-profile cases for the wrong reasons entirely.
Edward Norton plays his client, a young man who may OR may not have murdered the local Archbishop, who may OR may not be as saintly as he appears.
Gere's opposition in the case: a determined, female prosecutor (an under-used Laura Linney), who also happens to have had a past relationship with his character.
Does any of that ring any bells? It should. It's basically the plot of almost EVERY courtroom-based thriller ever put out during the 80's and 90's, such as SUSPECT, THE JUROR, and THE FIRM.
The film runs the gamut of bad courtroom thriller cliches. You have the conscience-stricken lawyer...corrupt city officials...a cover-up...lawyers who break the law for their clients...a fight scene in the courtroom...and, of course, the judge who swigs glasses of whiskey in their chambers...
Gere and company try their hardest with the material they're handed here, which usually just sums up to a LOT of screaming and yelling...and running! There's way too much running in this film for any legal drama. (lol)
The plot is paper-thin, with a conclusion you can see coming somewhere around the 40-minute mark when Norton contributes his bit of overacting prowess.
Strangely enough, it is Norton's performance that is the film's only saving grace. This was his feature-film debut and it brightly showcased the talents of an actor we have grown to love a decade later. In a film dominated with so many Hollywood "big dogs", he manages to wrestle the bone away from them and steal the show. The Academy saw his potential and even awarded him with a Best Supporting Actor nod for his work.
Altogether, through a flawed film, a decent effort. Just not very memorable.
IF YOU LIKED THIS FILM, CHECK OUT---
-Red Corner (a far more superior courtroom drama starring Richard Gere)
-A Few Good Men
IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THIS ONE, CHECK OUT---
(see above)
Tell me if you've heard this one before...
Richard Gere plays Martin Vail, a hotshot Chicago lawyer who begins to have a crisis of conscience over whether or not the people he defends in court truly deserve to be saved. And, despite opening the film with an interview and asking the interviewer..."This is a cover story, right"...starts to question if he might be taking these high-profile cases for the wrong reasons entirely.
Edward Norton plays his client, a young man who may OR may not have murdered the local Archbishop, who may OR may not be as saintly as he appears.
Gere's opposition in the case: a determined, female prosecutor (an under-used Laura Linney), who also happens to have had a past relationship with his character.
Does any of that ring any bells? It should. It's basically the plot of almost EVERY courtroom-based thriller ever put out during the 80's and 90's, such as SUSPECT, THE JUROR, and THE FIRM.
The film runs the gamut of bad courtroom thriller cliches. You have the conscience-stricken lawyer...corrupt city officials...a cover-up...lawyers who break the law for their clients...a fight scene in the courtroom...and, of course, the judge who swigs glasses of whiskey in their chambers...
Gere and company try their hardest with the material they're handed here, which usually just sums up to a LOT of screaming and yelling...and running! There's way too much running in this film for any legal drama. (lol)
The plot is paper-thin, with a conclusion you can see coming somewhere around the 40-minute mark when Norton contributes his bit of overacting prowess.
Strangely enough, it is Norton's performance that is the film's only saving grace. This was his feature-film debut and it brightly showcased the talents of an actor we have grown to love a decade later. In a film dominated with so many Hollywood "big dogs", he manages to wrestle the bone away from them and steal the show. The Academy saw his potential and even awarded him with a Best Supporting Actor nod for his work.
Altogether, through a flawed film, a decent effort. Just not very memorable.
IF YOU LIKED THIS FILM, CHECK OUT---
-Red Corner (a far more superior courtroom drama starring Richard Gere)
-A Few Good Men
IF YOU DIDN'T LIKE THIS ONE, CHECK OUT---
(see above)
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