Primal Fear

An arrogant, high-powered attorney takes on the case of a poor altar boy found running away from the scene of the grisly murder of the bishop who has taken him in. The case gets a lot more complex when the accused reveals that there may or may not have been a third person in the room.



An altar boy is accused of murdering a priest, and the truth is buried several layers deep.




When a young man, Aaron, is charged with the horrific murder of Archbishop Rushman, hot-shot Chicago lawyer Martin Vail takes on his defense at no charge. Aaron was a homeless street kid before he was taken in by the Archbishop. He's shy and speaks with a stammer. Vail is convinced that Aaron is innocent but after discovering a video that shows Aaron may have had good reason to want the Archbishop dead, he begins to question that conclusion. When Aaron lashes out at the psychologist examining him another personality, Roy, is revealed. With the trial already underway, Vail cannot change Aaron plea and so has to find a way to introduce his client's condition. Aaron has something of a surprise for him as well.
—garykmcd




Martin Vail left the Chicago DA's office to become a successful criminal lawyer, that success predicated on working on high profile cases. As such, he fights to get the case of naive nineteen year old rural Kentuckian Aaron Stampler, an altar boy accused of the vicious bludgeoning death of Archbishop Rushman of Chicago. The story that Aaron tells Marty is that he, abused by his father, was in the room when the murder was committed by a third party, a shadowy figure he did not see, before he blacked out, which commonly happens to him. Not remembering anything during the blackout period, he awoke covered in the archbishop's blood, his fright the reason he ran from the police. He also states that he had no reason to kill the archbishop, who he loved as the father he wished he had. Marty doesn't care if he is guilty or innocent, but needs to know the truth to defend him adequately. Unlike the rest of the world, Marty does believe his story, he who hopes he can use Aaron's general appearance of being an innocent to his advantage. The powerful state attorney, John Shaughnessy, who Marty has had many a moral run-in, wants a first degree murder conviction and the death penalty in this case. He appoints to the case Janet Venable, who still has bad feelings toward Marty, an ex-lover, their six month relationship which ended badly. Although the case looks to be a slam dunk for Janet, her career may be made or broken by its outcome. In building his case, Marty comes across some major pieces of information, some pertaining to the Archbishop himself, and one uncovered by Dr. Molly Arrington about Aaron, she a psychiatrist hired by Marty to assess Aaron's mental state. These pieces of information as a collective pose a problem for Marty in how to mount a credible and legitimate defense for his client. It is more of a moral dilemma for Marty if only because he believes the life of a young man, who he believes in, is at stake.
—Huggo




As the brutal murder of Chicago's beloved archbishop by the hand of the shy nineteen-year-old altar boy, Aaron Stampler, makes the headlines, the high-profile defence attorney, Martin Vail, takes the opportunity to be in the spotlight. Pro bono, Vail is eager to represent the penniless defendant and the case's seemingly obvious murderer; however, Aaron appears to know more than he lets on. Under those circumstances, is Stampler truly guilty of murder, or was he framed? Above all, is the arrogant and cynical lawyer prepared to dig deep into the popular priest's past to unearth the truth?
—Nick Riganas





SYNOPSIS

Martin Vail (Richard Gere) is a prominent, cynical defense attorney in Chicago who loves the public spotlight and does everything he can to get his high-paying clients off crimes they commit on legal technicalities. One of Vail's clients is a Cuban-American mobster named Joey Pinero (Steven Bauer), whose arrest Vail has just cleared on a legal technicality. Vail meets with Pinero at his bar hangout in Chicago's poverty-stricken south side to discuss Pinero's options; Pinero was brutalized during his arrest months earlier, and now the city is offering Pinero a $1.5 million settlement for his injuries and to leave Chicago for good. Pinero agrees to take the settlement but refuses to leave town; he claims that Chicago is his home and his "people" need him around for their own well-being and protection.

One day while in a bar, Vail sees a news report about the arrest of Aaron Stampler (Edward Norton), a young, stuttering, 19-year-old simpleton altar boy accused of murdering the beloved, highly respected Archbishop Rushman (Stanley Anderson) of the Catholic Church in Chicago in the archbishop's apartment. As a result, Vail jumps at the chance to represent the young man pro bono.

At first, the spotlight-loving Vail is interested primarily in the publicity that the case will bring, yet during his meetings at the county jail with Aaron, Vail comes to believe that his client is truly innocent, much to the chagrin of the prosecutor (and Vail's former lover), Janet Venable (Laura Linney).

As the murder trial begins, Vail discovers through Pinero and other connections that wealthy and powerful civic leaders, including the corrupt State's Attorney John Shaughnessy (John Mahoney) and the mayor, recently lost millions of dollars in real estate investments due to a decision by the archbishop not to develop on certain church-owned lands. As a result, the archbishop received numerous death threats. Vail also learns through the grapevine that the archbishop had been sexually abusing altar boys, including Stampler.

After Vail and his associate Tommy Goodman (Andre Braugher) track down a man seen burglarizing Stampler's apartment, they chase the man to a homeless encampment where they learn that his name is Alex, a former altar boy. He tells them about a VHS tape that Rushman had. Vail secretly searches Archbishop Rushman's apartment and discovers the VHS tape shot by Rushman, which shows Stampler being forced to have sex with another teenage altar boy and a teenage girl named Linda Forbes. Vail is now in a dilemma: introducing this evidence would make Stampler more sympathetic to the jury, but it would also give him a motive for the murder -- which Venable has been unable to establish.

The trial does not proceed well for the defense, as there is considerable evidence against Stampler -- he was found running from the Archbishop's apartment with blood splattered all over his clothes, and he claims not to remember anything about the murder. However, public opinion holds that Stampler is almost certainly guilty and there are denials by the public about the Archbishop's pedophilic nature. Vail has the sex tape mailed to Venable, knowing that she will realize who sent it (since she is under intense pressure from both Shaughnessy and her boss Bud Yancy (Terry O'Quinn) to deliver a guilty verdict at any cost) and will use it as proof of motive.

At the city jail, when Vail confronts his client and accuses him of having lied about certain details, Aaron breaks down crying and suddenly transforms into a new persona: a violent, foul-mouthed sociopath who calls himself "Roy." He confesses to the murder of the Archbishop for the years of molestation and abuse. "Roy" then throws Vail against the wall of his jail cell, injuring him. When this incident is over, Aaron Stampler reemerges and appears to have no recollection of what occurred. Molly Arrington (Frances McDormand), the psychiatrist examining Aaron who witnessed the entire event, is convinced he suffers from multiple personality disorder due to childhood abuse by his own father, which apparently resurfaced following the archbishop molesting him. However, Vail realizes that he cannot enter an insanity plea during an ongoing trial.

Vail begins to sets up a confrontation in court by dropping hints about the Archbishop's true nature as well as Aaron's multiple personality disorder. At the climax, Vail puts Aaron on the witness stand where he gently probes him in direct examination over his unhappy childhood and troubled dealings with the Archbishop. He also introduces evidence that both Shaughnessy and Yancy had covered up evidence of Rushman molesting another young man (and also implies that Shaughnessy had Joey Pinero murdered, when his body is found floating in the Chicago River). During cross-examination, after Janet Venable questions him harshly, Aaron turns into Roy in open court and charges at her, threatening to snap her neck if anyone comes near him. Aaron is subdued by courthouse marshals and is rushed back to his holding cell.

In light of Aaron's apparent insanity, corrupt Judge Miriam Shoat (Alfre Woodard) dismisses the jury in favor of a bench trial. She finds Aaron not guilty by reason of insanity and remands him to a maximum security mental hospital. Yet afterward, Janet is fired from her job for allowing the corrupt dealings of the archbishop to be made public as well as the sexual abuse of altar boys that both the Catholic Church and the city council have been trying to hide for the past 10 years.

In the final scene, Vail visits Aaron in his cell to tell him the news of this dismissal. Aaron says he recalls nothing of what happened in the courtroom, having again "lost time." However, just as Vail is leaving, Aaron asks him to "tell Miss Venable I hope her neck is okay," which is not something Aaron should have been able to remember if he had "lost time." Vail points out this slip, whereupon Aaron Stampler grins slyly and reveals that he has been pretending to be insane the whole time. No longer stuttering, the murderous but perfectly sane Aaron admits that he didn't make up the identity of Roy; he made up the character of Aaron. Roy/Aaron Stampler admits to murdering Archbishop Rushman, as well as his girlfriend, Linda, whom the cleric had also molested. Aware that he would not get away with killing the Archbishop, Aaron made up his simpleton personality to gain sympathy from his lawyer as well as the judge and jury, and when his scheme was compromised, he made up the name of 'Roy' (his real sociopath personality) to make it appear that he had committed the murder under a split personality. Stunned and disillusioned at how he was so easily fooled and manipulated by his own client, Vail walks away, with Aaron/Roy taunting him from the cell. Vail leaves the courthouse through the back door and takes a taxi away, now more angry and cynical than ever, but ashamed to be in the public light anymore.