Dark...brilliant...fits my taste

Rating: 8/10 (12 May 2001)

WARNING: SPOILERS CONTAINED

However, this film can be either an inventive, experimental masterpiece or a piece of rubbish, I must admit.
With different spices added to this flick, Lomax (Keanu Reeves), a promising defending attorney, his wife (Charlize Theron) and his new employer (Al Pacino), are the central characters. A little bit of horror, suspense, fantasy, lust, and incest mixed up. Graphic scenes, especially the naked women.
No matter how surreal the plot is, I now consider it a tale which has something to say. It's so much fun to watch Lomax, being a hotshot advocate, has eventually realised that he can't get them both - conscience and success. Or I should say, vanity.
So what is John Milton (Al Pacino) anyway? It's good that we don't get a clear answer from the movie. We do know that he possesses black magic, and maybe something even more powerful. Charlize Theron's performance is splendid.
And then, the evil is displayed throughout the movie as intriguing force (intriguing, indeed). After Lomax breaks the spell by exercising his individual free will, he gets a second chance to have his life and to make a different decision. Unfortunately, the very ending is rather weak. Nevertheless, I think you can learn something from it.
'Vanity is my favourite sin', says Milton. He says it more than once. Maybe that's the whole point. I find 'The Devil's Advocate' profound...philosophical, in a way you wouldn't notice it so easily. I also enjoy the madness, the bloodiness and the sense of 'seeking your success, and succumbing into your own ego and - vanity'. All these fascinating elements are put together beautifully by director Taylor Hackford.