Really mixed feelings about this one

I have mixed feelings about this film too, but for different reasons. First, the title is so Hollywood. I can't think of another film where you can automatically see non-creative suits sitting around thinking, What should we call this 90's serial killer drama?

I watched it again for the first time in years, because a theater near me was showing Philip Seymour Hoffmann's film, and at one time, I thought Edward Norton was Hoffmann's closest competition. I didn't know (until reading here) that he stopped acting because directors think he's difficult to work with.

I guess you should always judge a film by the criteria you used when you first saw it, in the context of the era it was made. But even back in the serial killer-obsessed 90's, Primal Fear seemed better. Back then, I couldn't articulate exactly in what ways it was better, aside from Norton's performance. (It's of a piece with The Fugitive or No Way Out or any big-budget movie that starts with some high-society ball.)

Rewatching it, I see a tendency to root for Aaron not despite what he does but because of what he does. Considering we're supposed to regard him as a psychopath, he comes off as not very unlike Benedict Cumberbatch in "Sherlock," who kills people because he's a modern-day Clint. Stampler didn't have to go through all the trouble he takes to destroy a monster; he did a favor to society...or at least in 2014, that's how it seems.