Devil's Advocate, The (1997)

reviewed by
David Sunga


Review: Devil's Advocate (1997)
Rating: 2.5 stars  (out of 4.0)
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Key to rating system:
2.0  stars         Debatable
2.5 stars        Some people may like it
3.0 stars        I liked it
3.5 stars        I am biased in favor of the movie
4.0  stars        I felt the movie's impact personally or it stood out
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A Movie Review by David Sunga
Directed by:
Taylor Hackford
Written by:
Jonathan Lemkin and Tony Gilroy

Starring: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron

Ingredients: Satan, yuppie lawyer and wife, moral decisions, hallucinations

Synopsis: Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves ) is an upcoming ambitious yuppie lawyer with a beautiful wife and a religious mother. When small town guy Lomax gets hand picked to join a prestigious New York law firm, he brings his family to New York. But he doesnt realize its part of an even larger picture concerning God, the Devil, and the world. The film Devils Advocate is a cross between a back-in-time-loop flick and a morality play. Lomax, a man of average morality and resistance to temptation, eventually discovers he is not who he thinks he is; he is actually part of a divine comedy where the price of making an immoral decision is the end of the world.

Opinion: This is one of those films that seemed long and not particularly exciting when I watched it. Typically, we get to watch Mary Ann Lomax (Charlize Theron) spend many minutes selecting wallpaper, followed by a partial face morph of one of her neighbors into a demon and back to normal again, followed by another long period of selecting wallpaper and so on and so forth - - which makes the movie seem unexciting.

I felt better a few days after the movie was over and I had time to think about the story, and the infinite time loop Lomax is stuck in, and how - - if he ever makes a mistake - - it means the end of the world.

This film boasts a talented cast and interesting cinematography. For example, in terms of cinematography, the standard fades and wipes between scenes are replaced in Devils Advocate by scenic time lapse photography of clouds and lightning or by pans of medieval ceiling paintings. Pacinos monologues as Satan can be mesmerizing, and Charlize Theron displays great acting range in portraying a wife slowly losing her sanity.

Trivia: In the story, Lomaxs boss goes by the name of John Milton. This is a play on words and an insight into what Devils Advocate is supposed to be about. In real life John Milton was the moralistic 17th century English author (1608-1674) who wrote the classic poem Paradise Lost (published first in 1667). Milton believed he had been called upon to serve as a poet/priest of Gods will. Typical of Miltons main works ('Paradise Lost,' Samson Agonistes,' 'Paradise Regained') is the underlying theme of a messianic hero in a fallen world who is eventually led to a clearer understanding of his own divine role.

Reviewed by David Sunga

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