Review of Primal Fear (1996) by Brian B — 03 Apr 2017

This is a pretty well-crafted courtroom drama with an unpredictable plot twist. Also, it first introduced us to how great of an actor Edward Norton was and how great he was at conveying different moods.

After an altar boy is accused of brutally murdering a famous archbishop, his lawyer begins to realize that he has a split personality which causes him to do violent acts. He then has to perform the difficult task of pleading insanity to the jury.

This movie is a very good courtroom thriller. It brings its own twists and alterations to the genre and it makes for a pretty well-crafted movie. Although its storyline is pretty typical by today's standards, it is still a great watch because of the plot, twist, and acting.

The acting in this movie is very well-done. Edward Norton is able to sound like 2 convincing characters. His performance is well-done and it shows us that he can convincingly convey different emotions and moods. I also really liked Laura Linney's performance. She plays the role of a rude and nasty lady and her facial expressions and the tone of her voice often makes us hate her in several scenes involving the courthouse.

The plot twist at the end caught me off guard. I'm not going to spoil what it is but it's really well-done. It doesn't make the movie seem unrealistic and fanciful at all and it changes the movie immensely on your second viewing. The movie gave no nods or clues to it so it's extremely hard to be able to predict it. It comes truly as a surprise.

So in conclusion, this is one of the best courtroom dramas in the past few decades. It has a great plot and a great twist. But most importantly, it is the movie which first introduced us to Edward Norton and how great of an actor he was.