DEVIL'S ADVOCATE By Harvey Karten, Ph.D. Warner Bros./Regency Enterprises Director: Taylor Hackford Writer: Jonathan Lemkin, Tony Gilroy Cast: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones, Judith Ivey, Craig T. Nelson
Some viewers will put "Devil's Advocate" down because, they'll say, it's just not believable. True, there may be a few items in the movie that will dare you to suspend disbelief. But only once does it become wholly incredible: when it suggests that anyone married to an adoring Mary Ann Lomax (Charlize Theron) might spend one minute looking at another woman. Otherwise, what comes out of the supernatural thriller are words and hints of pure gospel. For example: "New York is the dwelling place of demons" (said by Mrs. Lomax played by Judith Ivey). That lawyers sometimes tell fibs. That vanity is everyone's preferred sin, (without which there would be hardly any movies). That giving cameo appearances to Senator Alfonse D'Amato and boxing promoter Don King is silly. That it is impossible for Al Pacino to be anything but magnetic in any medium he chooses to appear. And that Keanu Reeves really can act.
"Devil's Advocate" is a morality tale whose ingenious coda is not simply a final unravelling. The tack-on--for which you'll have to wait for almost all of its 144-minute length--confirms screenwriters Jonathan Lemkin's and Tony Gilroy's view that we human beings never learn. The Devil will always take the hindmost.
Dramatizing a case in which Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) successfully defends an obviously guilty sleazeball on trial for molesting a high-school kid, director Taylor Hackford acquaints us with a professional who has not known the meaning of the word "defeat." When Lomax was a Florida prosecutor, he ran up a string of sixty-four consecutive convictions. Now, as a defense counsel, he continues his unbroken record of victories. The American legal system does allow an attorney to do his best for his client even if he believes the latter to be at fault--that's the adversarial system--but "Devil's Advocate" is uncomfortable with the presumption of innocence, allowing Lomax to work out for himself the morality or immorality of his calling.
Lured to New York by the charismatic John Milton (Al Pacino), who runs a prestigious law firm, Lomax and his drop- dead-gorgeous wife Mary Ann take up residence in a plush Fifth Avenue apartment against the advice of Lomax's Bible- thumping mother (Judith Ivey). While his wife begins to go bonkers with boredom and loneliness, Lomax continues his string of wins, defending a bizarre man who sacrifices goats in his basement (Delroy Lindo) and one Alexander Cullen (Craig T. Nelson), a tycoon accused of killing his wife, stepson, and maid. Like the Robert Rodriguez-Quentin Tarantino film "From Dusk Till Dawn," the picture heads into off-the-wall occultism at that point, giving way to excesses which both debase its intelligently cynical tone and threatens to turn it into juvenalia. Mary Ann begins to see monsters. First, the face of her neighbor Jackie (Tamara Tunie) turns momentarily hideous. Later the kind and supportive Pam (Debra Monk) appears equally macabre. Considering that we know pretty much from the start that the sharply-dressed, sophisticated and witty John Milton is the Devil, it's a disappointment to see the movie lose its urbane veneer and give itself over to adolescent indulgence.
This fault aside, "Devil's Advocate" remains an edge-of-the- seat stew peppered with comic dialogue throughout. Its extravagant budget shows through Bruno Rubeo's production design, particularly his concept of John Milton's office with its opulent bas-relief, its telltale fireplace, and its outdoor patio featuring a pool which seems to run right off the penthouse roof. James Newton Howard's soundtrack is devilishly eerie, fashioned to be played at full theater volume, adding considerable tension and even wit to the production. What's more it is blessed by actors with remarkable chemistry for one another, highlighting a climactic face off between Reeves and Pacino and an intensely emotional relationship between Reeves and Charlize Theron. Theron, the 5'9" South-African born beauty, has her career-making role as a spirited party girl who goes off the deep end when she moves from her laid-back Florida surroundings to the fiendish Big Apple in a movie which--however excessive at many points--provides chic repartee, handsome design, and professional performances. Rated R. Running Time: 144 minutes. (C) 1997 Harvey Karten
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