The style [of "Primate"] is typical of a Wiseman film: leisurely, flat, unnarrated, often repetitive, utterly free of polemic. But the subject matter is intensely emotional. Not only is it grisly, with enough vivesection, exotic behavior modification, implantations, vomiting and probing to turn the strongest stomach, but also profound in the questions it raises about science, compassion and the eternal tension between the rational and spiritual sides of man's nature.

Wiseman raises these questions simply by observing scientists as closely as scientists observe primates. In the process, he exposes their callousness, their obsessiveness, the little games they play with one another and with their funding foundations, and, most revealingly, their peculiarly narrow view of life in general. (pp. 1, 31)

To Wiseman's credit, the film does not exploit the lovableness of the animals. "Primate" is never sentimental. Although the animals appear pitiful, the point of the film is not just...