THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE 1997
A film review by Timothy Voon
Copyright 1998 Timothy Voon
6 :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( :-( for causing an unpleasant movie experience
What started out as a standard court room drama, took a turn for the worse when the subject material went from weird to out right bizarre. In fact much of the material is quite sickening if one has time to contemplate it. The Devil is not just an allegory for someone evil in this movie, the evil is actually THE DEVIL himself in flesh and blood.
Let's talk about bizarre. Keanu Reeves, the advocate, lawyer character in this movie, is trying to make a baby with his wife on the lounge room floor. As this is occurring the image of his wife keeps flipping between her and another mysterious woman. He's confused at first, there is hesitancy in his eyes, but then he really starts coming and going. His wife is receptive, the other woman aggressive, it begins to turn him on as he loses himself in this three way fantastic orgy. The only thing of note about this entirely depraved scene is that Keanu Reaves has a hairy bum.
If you were brought up in the Catholic, Christian, Jewish or Muslim faith, then you may find the end scenes difficult to handle. The Devil (Al Pacino) has a field day mocking God and some of the words spoken are nothing short of blasphemous. So be warned. Issues like spawning the Anti-Christ through incestuous relations between the devil's seed are prominent themes in the movie. Not to mention sex, mutilation, nudity, lunacy, suicide and any evil thing you can think off. If you can excuse all of this, or if you like this sought of thing, then you will probably enjoy the movie. Personally it's not something I could stomach.
Al Pacino does an over the top performances as the Devil. I feel of late that he has been overacting with most of his movie roles. As for Keanu Reeves, his is actually quite good in this movie, and this is probably his best performance since …….well since ….. BILL AND TED??? I personally disliked the content of this movie, much more so than its make. This is not a movie for those with strong religious convictions.
Timothy Voon e-mail: stirling@netlink.com.au
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