Fails to get the viewer on side

Rating: 4/10 (20 June 2016)

A flashy, nauseating updating of all those '40s melodramas which had everyday folk teaming up with the devil in human form for all kinds of moral adventures, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE is a huge disappointment for this viewer. Even the usually reliable Al Pacino can't save this movie, which at the end has him going way over the top with his typical shouty-shouty nonsense and making himself look like a complete fool. Despite being a high-budget production with some good makeup from old-hand Rick Baker and some brief morphing sequences, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE is an annoyingly insubstantial little movie with a miscast hero in Keanu Reeves.
Reeves of course is more suited to action fare like SPEED or THE MATRIX and scenes of him attempting to emote in this film are hard to watch, despite his pretty good attempts at being determined and forceful in the courtroom scenes. Although not without merit, and surprisingly understated for the majority of its running time, THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE fails at the end in being a piece of serious drama. The first reason is because of the stupid one-liners which the film is populated with, the second the over-the-top finale which relies on bad CGI far too much and ends up being a simple slanging match between hero and villain.
By far the best acting on screen comes (somewhat surprisingly) from Charlize Theron (THE ASTRONAUT'S WIFE), who plays Reeves's put-upon wife. Of course, it's a choice role to play and Theron is very good indeed in portraying her character's mental breakdown (on the other hand, you just want to break Keanu's nose for being such a total, blind idiot to miss what's happening around him). Some of the vignettes and subplots surrounding the main story (like the one with Jeffrey Jones, who is attacked by demonic winos) are pretty enjoyable and the film has an expensive, glossy look to it as well. It's just a shame that some restraint couldn't have been brought in over the out-of-control actors and that some real suspense and tension couldn't have been worked into the storyline; never have I been so uninterested in a movie as it nears its explosive climatic showdown, but THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE repeatedly fails to invest the viewer with any excitement or interest, which is a real shame.