Review of Primal Fear (1996) by Burton M — 01 Nov 2009

Primal Fear sports an extremely well-constructed script and two virtuoso performances from Richard Gere and Edward Norton. While Norton exploded onto the film scene with this portrayal of the tormented altar boy accused of murder (astonishingly enough, in his first film role), it's Gere who deftly holds the picture together, making the most of well-written character.

While I'm not the biggest Gere fan, I will readily agree that if ever he was born to play a role, this is it. The excellent supporting cast fills out the rest of the film well. Laura Linney does her best to add gravatis to a character who otherwise would have been little more than a plot mechanism.

Andre Braugher's bumbling investigator is a stark contrast to his career defining role as detective Frank Pembleton on Homcide: Life on the Street. Overall, I'd highly recommend it.