Julia Sirmons
Primal Fear follows in the footsteps of Hollywood legal dramas, like Anatomy of a Murder, that tell the story of a murder trial from the point of view of a skilled and wily defense attorney. With a protagonist who represents and ruminates on the rights of the accused, it’s a particularly satisfying character study of a man whose moral compass may veer wildly – but who possesses a kernel of decency that gums up the often-unjust wheels of justice.
Richard Gere’s Martin Vail is a common archetype in the American legal drama: the amoral high-powered defense attorney who’s willing to represent really bad dudes if the price is right. Slick and arrogant, he trots out all the familiar lines – repeating that he doesn’t care and doesn’t want to know if his client is innocent or guilty – and he delivers them with the proper briskness. He smarms and gladhands in tuxes, swills his cocktails, and dazzles the press. When he nabs the case of a puppyish, blood-covered altar boy accused of murdering Chicago’s powerful archbishop, it seems like an uphill climb even for him. What starts as a simple grab for publicity grows more challenging (and more thrilling) once Vail comes to believe that his client might be (gasp) innocent.
The twists and turns of a good legal thriller land harder when they dredge up the depths of characters and their convictions. Once the case gets more complicated, Vail grows into his best self: a true believer in the right to a good defense and in fighting for the little guy against the system. For a moment, we see his soft underbelly: he confesses that he is a defense attorney because he believes that nobody is as bad as the worst thing they’ve done. Then the shark comes back, as he threatens to sue if the reporter ever repeats it. When Vail fights the case, his cool patina crackles; there’s a bit of the knight errant about him. As much as Gere has an alluring smoothness (he can charm with a flashy, callow smile), there’s also a softness – he can be twinkly and crinkly at moments. Vail is sharp, and he wants you to know it, but his attachment to his client is real.
As the investigation kicks in, Primal Fear has the pleasing locomotion of a classic Hollywood legal thriller. Vail digs into the case with his team, and it’s a great one. Maura Tierney is sharp and sparkly as his assistant, Andre Braugher caustic and incredulous as his investigator. Frances McDormand plays the straightforward but kind psychologist Vail hires to assess his client. Their relationships are breezy and dynamic; they have the lived-in feel of people who’ve been working together so long that they’re a well-oiled machine.
Everything moves at a nice clip once the trial starts, where juicy, pleasingly ridiculous courtroom scenes are nicely woven with the defense’s twisty investigations, as well as the ongoing investigation into the defendant’s psychology. Primal Fear gave Edward Norton his breakout role; as the stunted and boyish accused, he does a lot of ducking his head and flopping his hair. His innocence seems both obvious and complicated. As the recesses of his psyche are revealed, Norton gets more notes to play. He makes the most of them, crafting a slippery persona that keeps you guessing.
All good legal thrillers have some kind of erotic charge; if it’s totally predictable that Vail battles a prosecutor (played by Laura Linney) who also happens to be his ex-lover, it’s at least some honest fun. Their exchanges in the courtroom are sometimes blatantly psychosexual, but this courtroom camp steers clear of sentiment. Their barbs and volleys are spiky; there’s nothing gooey there. Linney’s Janet Venable has a straight steel backbone and a cigarette elegantly poised in her hand – she never gives an inch. Any honest feeling between them stems from Vail’s belief that Janet is wasting her time and her principles working as a prosecutor. If he’s right about the sexism she faces in her office, it’s clear to her and us that he’s just another man telling her what to do. The lengths they’ll go to, and how much they’ll use each other, remains an open question.
Primal Fear’s polished courtroom scenes lie alongside noirish elements and side plots. Its Chicago is a dirty town, where greed and evil ooze down from the top. The late archbishop (a man with ghoulish secrets)was buddy-buddy with the hardass DA(John Mahoney), and the trial lays bare a corrupt power structure that’s just as ghastly as the murder itself. Vail finds the only real honesty in a gangster client’s world, where there is at least a sense of community and moral obligation. There’s a grime that will stick, no matter how the trial goes.
If, at the end of the day, Vail is more of a classic noirish sadsack than an unruffled high-flyer, it’s a product of the film’s time. Its tough-on-crime attitudes favored stories of prosecutors and saw defense attorneys as oily sharks. He must face his sins and the limits of his own power, and that justice can go wrong in unexpected ways.Vail’s combination of honor and venality makes Primal Fear something dark and rich, even as it turns to ashes in the mouth.
“Primal Fear” is streaming on the Criterion Channel, Kanopy, and Paramount+.
