PRIMAL FEAR (53)

Directed by: Gregory Hoblit

Starring: Richard Gere, Laura Linney, Edward Norton

The Pitch: Slick, ambitious lawyer takes on the case of a naive youngster charged with murder.

Theo Sez: Basically a king-size hustle, but at least perpetrated by smart people. The first hour or so is unexpectedly marvellous - tight and pacy, the lines crackling with snappy wit, the characters more than one-dimensional, and Gere perfect as a seriously flawed hero (perhaps the only kind he can really play - some rogue streak of obnoxious arrogance always intrudes when he tries for the dreamboat roles). Then the hokiness begins, first with an improbable chase down subterranean passages, then (more damagingly) in the muddled and unconvincing trial scenes that take up most of the second half - grandstanding lawyers, sensational allegations, neither side with a coherent strategy, Linney's prosecuting attorney incompetent at best - finally (worst of all) in a last-minute twist that makes nonsense of the whole movie. It would be nice to think that the holes in the plot are really red herrings, but one suspects they're actually just holes: the damning reflection of gifted, cynical film-makers who sacrifice narrative to the thrill of a spectacular shock, and who consider their audience too jaded and apathetic to care. Unsurprisingly, Norton's meticulously detailed, masterclass-in-acting villainy walks away with the whole incoherent movie. It's a performance without a single moment of spontaneity - but then this isn't exactly Cassavetes.