Filtered-through-Hollywood morality tale has its moments.

Rating: 7/10 (9 July 2003)

New York lawyers are actually demons from hell! It's not hard to imagine and a great idea for a movie, but this adaptation of Andrew Neiderman's (more involving) novel is only partly successful, despite the A-list collaboration. So-so allegorical tale follows shallow hotshot Florida lawyer Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves), who hasn't lost a case, and his beautiful young wife Mary Ann (Charlize Theron) to a prestigious NY law firm. Kevin is instantly taken under the wing of seductive head honcho John Milton (Al Pacino) and seduced by more than just the money, but the lack of decent morals are a turnoff and his simple-minded wife has an even more miserable time of it. It's because Pacino is actually Satan!
The greed-isn't-good theme is old hat, and like Mike Nichol's WOLF, it borrows a lot of vintage horror film ideas, but dodges genre identification. Reeves is better than expected, but still never wholly convincing in a role that requires a stronger actor and Pacino fans will have to have patience, because he's completely restrained until the finale finally lets him rant and rave. Theron is most impressive as the troubled wife...the main victim of the manipulation and real horrors of the story (and a real cutie, besides). Rick Baker, Rob Bottin and Steve Wang worked on the scantily-used special effects.