This shot wouldn't be possible even if Reeves was sitting. Al would still be obscured.
The Devil’s Advocate is slick. It boasts a who’s who of actors and gives them an open license to go as BIG as they want (and believe me Al Pacino fully exploits that licence near the end of the film). It also includes some of the better special effects available – in the late 90s anyway.
Yet ultimately it fails dismally for two main reasons. The first is a fully cop–out ending that I obviously can’t describe. But that alone is forgivable. The second and more dire reason is that for the most part The Devil’s Advocate is boring as Hell, if you pardon the pun…
Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) is a hot shot small town lawyer riding the dream run of a lifetime. He is charismatic, smart, successful and determined to anything to keep his streak alive. To top this off Kevin is married to Mary-Anne (Charlize Theron), a beautiful young woman devoted only to him.
When Kevin is headhunted to New York City to a plush top class law firm run by the legendary John Milton (Al Pacino), Kevin is seduced by the new found notoriety, the big bucks, the prestige and the chance to work alongside and learn from the best.
Milton, for his part, is larger than life – despite being smaller than a Care Bear – and encourages Kevin to be aggressive and ambitious. To dream big.
Mary-Anne on the other hand loves the plush new apartment with all the trimmings, the unlimited credit and the fancy soirees that the couple are suddenly invited to, but she misses Kevin more than she enjoys being a Real Housewife of NYC, and she decides she wants to have a child.
This rift is only exacerbated when young rookie Kevin is handed the case of a lifetime on a silver platter by Milton, a primo high profile triple murder case, much to the chagrin of the more experienced heads in the firm. Of course Kevin mucks in with gusto, trying to find an angle that will absolve the seemingly guilty man and bring him freedom, and Kevin the much coveted title of Partner.
Meanwhile Milton looks on with intense interest, other staff watch on with envy, and Mary-Anne starts finding the Big City more daunting than she could ever have imagined.
It takes a while for The Devil’s Advocate to ramp up, with the only interest in interpreting Milton’s very leading dialogue. Once the enormity of the situation and the truth behind Kevin’s appointment comes to light however it’s full speed ahead until the end.
Unfortunately though like a Nascar race it might be real fast, but it’s still boring.
I said '2 sugars'!
At least the actors try to meet the increasing ridiculousness with an over the top intensity that I guess is admirable, practically every main character gets their chance to indulge their inner Pacino and scream their way through a scene, even Kevin’s religious Mum has her moment in the spotlight. But like Karaoke, volume is not necessarily a replacement for quality no matter how loud things get, and The Devil’s Advocate is two plus hours of dullsville.
Noisy Dullsville.
Final Rating – 5.5 / 10. As the movie itself shows, money and power can buy a lot of stuff and influence a lot of people. The Devil’s Advocate is flashy and expensive, with a lot of Big names sharing Big scenes in Big voices. All that still can’t make me remotely interested in recommending this nonsense.
