Gregory Hoblits courtroom drama/homicide procedural takes a turn for the melodramatic when its revealed that the prime suspect in the brutal murder of a beloved archbishop, a stuttering angel of a Southern altar boy named Aaron Stampler, may have carried out the crime after all - acting out in a dissociative state, under a distinct and separate personality named Roy. The kids defence attorney Martin Vail, played with smarmy glee by Richard Silver Fox Gere, is frustrated because he knows that the judge wont let him amend the plea at this late stage, and that its too implausible a set of circumstances to request a new trial. Convinced that his sweet-natured client belongs in a hospital rather than a prison, Vail engineers the emergence of the volatile, psychotic Roy in open court when Aaron is cross-examined on the witness stand, leaving the judge with no alternative but to dismiss the jury and have Stampler remanded to a maximum security medical facility. Vail is celebrating with his client, having used his scuzzy defence lawyer powers for good rather than evil for a change, when Stampler slips - just once, but Vail picks up on it. And Stampler smiles, and begins to clap, the Roy persona coming to the fore again or rather, dropping the mask of the Aaron persona. There was never any multiple personality disorder. Hed exploited Vails affection for him, playing up the sweetly naïve character hed created for the lawyers benefit in order to manipulate him into making sure that the criminal case would be overturned. The murderous sociopath would find a way out of medical care far easier than he would a prison, and in the meantime, in the dying moments of the movie, the magnificent bast*rd manages to escape a conviction and the death penalty despite being found fleeing from the scene and covered in the victims blood.
Professional writer, punk werewolf and nesting place for starfish. Obsessed with squid, spirals and story. I publish short weird fiction online at desincarne.com, and tweet nonsense under the name Jack The Bodiless. You can follow me all you like, just don't touch my stuff.
