MovieChat Forums > Primal Fear (1996) Discussion > I can't believe...

I can't believe...

posted 10 years ago by bigal_a
1 reply | jump to latest

...the prosecution wouldn't have sought witnesses to Aaron's character and interviewed other altar boys who could have said that a) Aaron didn't stutter, b) he was a nasty piece of work, not an angel and c) about the paedophile priest's sick predilection.

Surely any number of people would have said the "Roy" Aaron of real life was not the timorous, pathetic, stammering figure in the dock.

I really like the film, especially Edward Norton's acting, but that one bit does bug me.

The restitution of life is no great feat. A variety of deaths may well enter into your punishment

[–] as8008 10 years ago

I understand how that could bug you. I think Aaron probably hid his real personality from everyone. When the priest found him homeless, on the street, he was probably already putting on the shy, stuttering personality. In fact, in the video, if he had been acting like Roy, that would have come up. He was still acting like Arron in the video.

One thing that did bug me was the thought that in real life, wouldn't the prosecution go back to his home town and do some digging about him. I don't know if anything they might have found would have been admissible, but it seems like they would at least have tried to get some dirt on him. And at that point wouldn't his true personality have come to light? Or at least the fact that he had been pretending to be "Aaron" for a long time. If either of those options would have gotten in the way of the plot, at least they could have come up with some excuse, like, "We checked around and nobody knows him. Not even any school records. Seems like his dad must have kept him at home." Something...