Of course Primal Fear's legacy is (justifiably) dominated by Edward Norton's insanely talented debut performance ^[1], but what I came away most surprised by ^[2] was the richness and texture of Gere and Lilley's performances. I have nothing against either of them as actors but — there's a certain We Have George Clooney At Home quality to most of Gere's work for instance, a sense of them being more of a well-executed archetype than a singular presence.

And that, I think, is the lens through which it's most fun to experience Primal Fear: a sort of gradual Dante-esque perversion of what feels like a standard SVU episode into hell: hell of the heart, hell of the soul. The hotshot amoral defender is revealed to be, in fact, a paladin succored and ruined by forces more wicked and clever than he thought extant; the wisecracking prosecutor discovers that she sacrificed everything and earns nothing. The two performances could not have been portrayed by "bigger" actors; the strength of their arc relies on the fact that you think you know who these people are from the very first time they step onto the screen.

★★★★