The Devil's Advocate
Director: Taylor Hackford.
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey, Craig T. Nelson.
The Devil's Advocate's last 30 minutes or so are so much better than the early sections of the movie that it's easy to forgive a lot of its problems. I left the cinema with a real sense of enjoyment that gradually fades as I remember the earlier pieces of the film.
First the trivial but distracting: Mr. Keanu Reeve's ache-saynt. It wanders all over the fifty states of America. Because of the storyline, his character, Kevin Lomax, had to be from the south so I understand the need for the fake accent but it was distracting all the same.
>From what I can tell by talking to other people, I'm in a minority group who believes that Mr. Reeves can act. Now I'm not saying that I'd pay money to see him play Hamlet but in the right role, I think he is quite good. Although not a great movie, I thought he was quite the part in Chain Reaction and I think as the vain, cocky, pretty-boy lawyer, he does a great job. He's less convincing as the anguished husband but perhaps that's in character: as one who chooses his career over his wife, time and time again, maybe deep down he's not all that anguished.
Ms. Charlize Theron as Mary Ann gives a solid performance although it's a pretty horrible role. I can see the attraction for an actor as it allows the performer to run the gamut of emotions and really stretch herself. It's hard, however, to understand this person. If she really is so lonely and bored, why doesn't she look for a job, try to meet people, join a basketball team? As a result, Mary Ann's progression through the movie is less sympathetic than it could have been.
The other lead, Mr. Al Pacino as John Milton, was inspired casting. This is the role Mr. Pacino was born to play. Schooled in the tradition that if he's not hamming it up, he's not acting makes him ideal for this role. His devilish grin, his wicked leer - he's having the time of his life.
The main problem with this movie is the set-up. This is contrary to most films. The majority of movies seem to have this great premise and no idea how to end the story. The Devil's Advocate has this great conclusion and has trouble working out how to set it up. It's too long in getting to John Milton's big speech with too many little side issues getting in the way, such as the story involving the Weaver investigation. As well as being slow, there are large chunks of the movie that just don't work. The cocktail party, for example, is saying "look at me, I'm so clever" but the lines lack any zing and the whole scene becomes a time waster. More frustrating is the scene where Eddie Barzoon (Mr. Jeffrey Jones) is out jogging. John Milton delivers some sort of speech during this event but I found it impossible to concentrate on the monologue with all that was happening on the screen. Perhaps that was the intention of the film-makers but, if so, it was a waste of two pages of the script.
Like all mainstream films, The Devil's Advocate has the male/female double standard. We get lots of full frontal female nudity but no such male scenes. Also, as expected, God and Satan are male (you knew I wasn't going to let that one pass).
Although outlandish and over the top, The Devil's Advocate poses some interesting philosophical arguments, especially concerning the role of God, the role of the Devil, free will and what is right. Of course, we are only getting one side of the story here. Be warned: although this movie left me with a sense of enjoyment, it is a very gruesome, violent film. It probably got its R rating for the nudity but the slit throats and the bashings couldn't have helped.
Viewing The Devil's Advocate means sitting through a lot of tedium but not going means you miss a great conclusion. Damned if you do and damned if you don't!
Rating: CR
© Nikki Lesley 1997
--
Nicole Lesley http://www.cs.usyd.edu.au/~nikki/ Basser Department of Computer Science, University of Sydney ph: (02) 9351 6098 rm: G90b email: nikki@cs.usyd.edu.au Movie Reviews: http://www.cs.su.oz.au/~nikki/m_r/Intro.html
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews