Review of The Devil's Advocate (1997) by Jared B — 28 Oct 2009

It's just too bad such a great performance by Al Pacino be on the same side of a poor performance by Keanu Reeves and a misguided screen play.

The comparison between New York and Babylonia, in the dialogues and in the actual screenplay, in my opinion is a the special metaphor that gives sense to the entire movie.

Also the complexity of the character "John Milton" gives a special touch to the plot. This complexity makes you feel and predict the character true nature.

One of the things that shocked me was the superficiality of some characters like "Mary Ann Lomax", that in some scenes looked more a bystander than a main character.

The general story is brilliant; a pre-apocalyptic drama mixed with a god-existence and meaning of live reflections, some of then tending to social and religious critic.

On my opinion it's on that point that Al Pacino performance show their valor, in the speeches as "John Milton/The Devil". He also showed a side of the devil never seen, like John Milton said "him a humanist, maybe the last one"; we see a devil with human desires without the dark aura, that embraces a new way to spread is doctrine, using lawyers.

And that's the the other innovator point of the movie: creating the image that lawyers are the devil's new chariot (in other circumstance this could be a joke) and that through the manipulation of laws and courts that is possible to make the world a suitable place for sin.

The Character "Kevin Lomax", is one of the best lawyers in Florida, that after winning a lot of judgments is contracted by a law firm in New York, and quickly climbs in the firm food chamber. From the moment he arrives New York we see on him a change on the love perceptive, when he begins to feel attracted to another lawyer from the same firm, that is also, as himself, son of the devil. As the attraction grows, so Lomax wife's insanity grows, that supported by a lack of attention by Kevin Lomax will end up in May Ann Lomax suicide. Analyzing the arguments that lead to the suicide, we realized that they are a little bit pulled, they don't justified to kill herself, in my opinion it's a patch on the story by the script writer.

The end of the movie is somewhat a little fantasied, compared to the rest of the movie: Lomax shoot himself to the head and everything goes back to the beginning... That's another transition that should bee done in other way.

Concluding, this movie as some marks that made in memorable but let us with the feeling that a little more polishing or even sweeping could this movie an unforgettable classic and an replaceable philosophic reflection about the XXI century society.