THE ADVOCATE
A film review by Raymond Johnston
Copyright 1994 Raymond Johnston
Director: Leslie Megahey Starring: Colin Firth , Ian Holm, Donald Pleasence, Amina Annabi, and Nicol Williamson A BBC/ CiBy 2000 film distributed in the US by Miramax
The absolute worst thing about this film is the poorly conceived US ad campaign. Faced with an offbeat tough sell project, Miramax decided to try to use their old CRYING GAME strategy and hope for lightning to strike twice. The ad implores you not to reveal the identity of the client. The still in the ad shows a minor character in a costume not seen in the film holding a sword. There is almost no swordplay in the film. Those looking for a sword and sorcery epic will be sorely disappointed. Fans of THE RETURN OF MARTIN GUERRE and THE NAME OF THE ROSE, however, are in for a real treat.
The very first frame of the film gives the secret away. A mule is about to be executed for her role in an unnatural act. There was a time when animals were held as culpable for there actions as humans. The film takes place in the middle ages. Colin Firth is a Paris trained lawyer who has taken up practice in a small town near the French border. Much of the film is a play on the city boy in the country motifs. With the time left over from his various romances, Firth uses his new-fangled legal notions as a kind of public defender. Firth's modern notions of justice simply have no place among the great (and quite literally) unwashed. His attempts to use logic in cases simply confounds the court. Like modern lawyers, he then has to resort to exploiting centuries old loopholes to delay cases and waste the court's money, hoping they will simply drop the case.
One of his cases, the one the ad implores people not to divulge, is the trial of a pig for killing a Jewish boy. From this case we see many of the popular notions of the Middle Ages, questions of whether non-Christians are counted as people or something less, of whether the person is on trial or the evil spirit that compelled the person.
These legal questions become the backdrop to a well handled mystery. For reasons everybody except the advocate seem to know, everybody wants the pig case disposed of quickly with few questions asked, except of course, the Gypsies who own the pig.
The mystery is the heart of this often quite funny and quite erotic little film. Although the film takes place on the French border, it is in English with an excellent cast of mostly Shakespearean actors. Besides Firth, Nicol Williamson and Donald Pleasence create quite believable characters. Amina Annabi gives a very earthy and sensual performance as the Gypsy.
This film was cut from the European original to get an R rating. In Great Britain it was released as THE HOUR OF THE PIG.
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