![]() ![]() No longer stuttering, Aaron brags about faking his multiple personalities, and having murdered Linda and Rushman without remorse. A grateful Aaron asks him to apologize to Venable, and Vail confronts him for being able to remember the attack. The judge dismisses the jury in favor of a bench trial to declare Aaron not guilty by reason of insanity.Ī shaken Venable rejects Vail's advances, and Vail informs Aaron that he will be remanded to a psychiatric hospital for treatment with a strong possibility of release. Venable begins a challenging cross-examination, in which Aaron suddenly becomes Roy, screaming obscenities and choking Venable before he is subdued. Vail calls Aaron to the stand, intentionally triggering his memories of his father's abuse. Arrington's testimony that Aaron's "body could be present at a homicide and yet his mind would be unable to recall it" is dismissed by the judge as too close to an insanity plea. Judge Shoat intervenes, striking the line of questioning from the record and fining Vail for using the courtroom as a stage for his own vendettas.ĭr. Vail suggests Shaughnessy resented the archbishop for stopping the $60 million land development, and accuses him of concealing previous evidence of the archbishop's sexual predation, and for being complicit in Piñero's death. Piñero is discovered murdered, and Vail surprises the court by calling Shaughnessy as a witness. Shaughnessy commands her to destroy the evidence, but she refuses and introduces it in court. He delivers the evidence anonymously to Venable, forcing her to use the tape as proof of Aaron's motive, at the risk of tarnishing the archbishop and generating sympathy for Aaron. Conflicted, Vail knows that he could acquit his client via an insanity defense, but cannot change his strategy mid-trial. Arrington concludes that Aaron has dissociative identity disorder caused by years of abuse at the hands of his father and, later, Rushman. The aggressive Roy admits to killing the archbishop, but threatens Vail not to introduce the tape at trial, before becoming shy, passive Aaron again, with no recollection of his change in personality.ĭr. Vail confronts Aaron, who suddenly becomes a violent sociopath without a stutter who identifies himself as "Roy". Stealing the tape from the archibishop's closet, Vail and his team discover footage of one of many encounters filmed by the archbishop forcing Aaron, Linda, and Alex to engage in sexual acts. Vail and Goodman track down Alex, who was searching for an incriminating VHS cassette. In court, a message carved into Rushman's chest is linked to a passage from The Scarlet Letter, denouncing the archbishop as "two-faced". With help from Piñero, Vail discovers that powerful civic leaders, including Shaughnessy, lost millions in real estate investments due to Rushman's decision not to develop church-owned land. Molly Arrington interviews Aaron for hours about his difficult childhood, his memory lapses, and his missing girlfriend Linda. Vail believes Aaron, while the state's attorney, John Shaughnessy, assigns Venable to prosecute the case and pursue the death penalty.Īt Aaron's apartment, Vail's investigator Tommy Goodman is attacked by another altar boy, Alex, who flees. Vail offers to defend him pro bono, and the meek, stuttering Aaron claims he is innocent but is prone to amnesia. Aaron Stampler, a 19-year-old altar boy from Kentucky, is caught fleeing the scene covered in blood and charged with murder. Fond of the spotlight, Vail is profiled for a magazine cover story, and tries to rekindle a casual relationship with his former colleague, prosecutor Janet Venable.īeloved Archbishop Rushman is savagely killed in his bedroom and his body mutilated. Martin Vail is an arrogant Chicago defense attorney, known for his undesirable but high-profile clients, including mob boss Joey Piñero. Norton won the Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor – Motion Picture, and was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Supporting Actor and the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role. The film was a box office success and received positive reviews, with Norton's performance earning critical praise. The film follows a Chicago defense attorney who believes that his altar boy client is not guilty of murdering a Catholic archbishop. It stars Richard Gere, Laura Linney, John Mahoney, Alfre Woodard, Frances McDormand, Andre Braugher, Maura Tierney, and Edward Norton in his film debut. Primal Fear is a 1996 American legal mystery thriller film directed by Gregory Hoblit, based on the 1993 novel of the same name by William Diehl, and written by Steve Shagan and Ann Biderman.
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