Review of The Devil's Advocate (1997) by Filipeneto — 19 Sep 2020

It's always a pleasure to see this film. Its one of those films that makes us think and that touches on one interesting theme: the eternal struggle between Good and Evil, between God and his eternal enemy, the Devil. And this film gives us, precisely, the best interpretation of the Prince of Evil that cinema has ever seen!

The script could hardly be better: we followed the trajectory of meteoric success of a Florida lawyer, Kevin Lomax, who is hired by a prestigious New York law firm run by John Milton who, without anyone knowing, is the Devil himself. The position is so good that Lomax doesn't even think twice: an excellent salary, a large and good apartment and other perks in exchange for a permanent effort on behalf of the company, defending cases that, at first sight, seem lost. But things will get worse when he has to choose between work and personal life.

Gradually, the audience begins to realize the whole thing, starting with the high level of amorality and perversion that reigns in the firm, where the boss flaunts his sexual affairs with assistants and employees, and where company's parties end in authentic orgies. Equally striking are the dialogues, most notably the monologues of Al Pacino, which are never tedious but rather exciting. Throughout the film there are several veiled mentions to "Paradise Lost", a classic of English literature, and sometimes we even see Lomax about to fall from grace, too, as happened to Adam.

In addition to an interesting story, the strongest point of this film is the impeccable and overwhelming work of Al Pacino, which overshadows the rest of the cast. I think he liked his character a lot and the result of his commitment is another great work... it's not his best because he made a lot of colossal films and characters ("The Godfather", "Serpico", "Scent of a Woman" etc). By the way he "defended" diabolical action in his arguments and reasoning, he turns out to be the real Devil's advocate. Keanu Reeves, who played Lomax, gives us a very good job, full of talent, but he is clearly overshadowed by Pacino. In the supporting cast there are still good performances by Charlize Theron, Jeffrey Jones and Connie Nielsen.

Technically, it is a film that has it's value but knows how to give space to the story told and the performance of the cast, never falling into the temptation to allow technique to override dramatic art. Cinematography is very good, and makes an intelligent use of light and shadow to create the most appropriate environment for each sequence and scene. Manhattan's urban landscapes are already known to any movie buff, but they always look good on film and have been well used here. The sets are extraordinary, thought to the detail. Being a film that spends a lot of time in the characters' houses, the creation of indoor environments was important and each apartment reveals a lot about the character that inhabits it: for example, the detail of Milton's apartment not having a single bedroom... the Devil never sleeps, in fact. Finally, a word for the special, visual and sound effects, that appear punctually but are extremely well made, and also for the soundtrack, which includes an excellent original score by James Newton Howard and some well-known songs, like "Paint it Black".