A Catholic bishop is found butchered in cold blood, and the suspect is an altar boy who by all counts, seems innocent. Former state prosecutor and notorious defense attorney Martin Vail (Richard Gere) takes the case, for both selfish and unselfish reasons. He's pitted against his on-off lover Janet Venable (Laura Linney), who's prosecuting for his political enemies. In what's considered an open-and-shut case, Vail has to pull out all the stops to defend his client, Aaron Stampler (a groundbreaking role for Edward Norton), whom he belatedly discovers has a split personality - a remorseless murderer named Roy - but cannot change their plea during the trial. He therefore has to force the killer to reveal himself - which he does in the climactic courtroom scene - before one final stunning twist. Recommended to me years ago (i still recall the particular conversation), i read the William Diehl book first, then managed to finally watch it. Also of interest to me, that it manages to cast 3 interesting actresses in one film - Linney, Maura Tierney (as Vail's assistant) and Frances McDormand (as the psychiatrist).
"You're sick, Norton - you're wacko. You say you created this Fight Club with Brad Pitt?"
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