An interesting case of genre hybridity but Reeves' lead and some generally jumbled scenes cannot hold the film together too greatly.

Rating: 6/10 (3 November 2008)

Who would've thought the merging of the horror genre with the legal thriller would actually threaten to half work? That's exactly the feeling that eerily dawns on you about half way to two thirds of the way through The Devil's Advocate, a film that uses whatever few scares and un-canniness it carries at the best of times to disorientate and make the viewer uneasy  less is very much more in this film and it works well on an emotional level. The scenes I'm referring to of course are when a certain Mary Ann Lomax (Theron) catches a glimpse of what a couple of high price law firm employees actually are, and that is pure evil in the from of a stick thin but pretty none-the-less female masquerading. They are scenes that zone the viewer out of the legal thriller genre and into a different, unexpected realm; a realm of horror.
But these scenes are few and far in-between and are moulded around a lead named Kevin Lomax, Mary Ann's husband, played by Keanu Reeves. The annoying bit about this is that Reeves cannot quite carry the film on his own and does not possess the necessary acting qualities required to drive the bizarre, hybrid beast that is The Devil's Advocate thus rendering it an ordinary and somewhat bland story about a possible apocalypse when it could've been an interesting and, dare I say, groundbreaking film that people might have still been talking about today for reasons other than the fact Pacino, Reeves and Theron are in it.
But some of this is down to the telling of the story and a slice of the direction. There is no obvious structure to the film, which isn't a bad thing, but the repetition of the establishing of the new world Kevin inhabits when he arrives in the 'big city' from his rural, old fashioned dwellings drag on a bit and the film takes a while in getting to the meat that will make up the film, that being a murder trial whose suspect is supposedly innocent and guess what; Kevin is put on the job. The Devil's Advocate's priorities seem to be in the right places. The film is a fish out of water story at the be all and end all of it, but it establishes Kevin as a man with a slight religious persona, something that the film utilises when it comes to dealing with the evil that certain other characters possess later on. This makes for good 'jump' scenes or moments in which the character we map onto gets a good freight, as do we. Kevin's slight religious background acts as a catalyst for certain 'feelings' and sensations he gets later on and they work relatively well, cinematically.
The film sees Kevin leave his Florida roots with his wife Mary-Ann for New York City. If ever there was a place in America to set a film about a newcomer or a 'fish out of water' arriving in new territory then it's New York. His new boss is John Milton, Al Pacino in a 'rant role', but it's all a façade for greater things. Milton is an odd individual but Pacino plays him perfectly. He's egotistical and outgoing, exclaiming things at the top of his voice with the sort of confidence that suggests he's been everywhere and done everything and anything he says is probably dead right anyway.
So in this male dominated world of lawyers and suit wearing business officials that inhabit courtrooms and offices, what of the women and Kevin's other half in particular? It's interesting to note that Mary-Ann exists to be a ditzy and somewhat stupid blonde woman who we begin disliking through annoyance but gradually come to feel sorry for as events play out. On the other hand, the mysterious female associates to Milton and his company exist to go shopping and get their breasts out. But this underestimates the film because underneath there is a fair amount of seduction and evil going on between the women. Women have never got a fair crack in either the legal thriller genre nor indeed the horror genre so for them to undergo (in Mary-Ann's case) the psychological horrors and changes they do is impressive in a certain sense.
But again, acting pulls the film down. Charlize Theron sees fit to shriek a lot and act in a very odd manner as the psychological study sets in  she is one fish not enjoying her time out of the water and it tells much later on. But then the shrieking and the eccentric behaviour when not a lot has really happened to drive her that way takes over. Was it the obsession in choosing a certain paint colour? Loneliness? Has all the shopping worn her out and forced her to hallucinate? It all sounds, and feels, a little messy. The bulk of the film is Pacino and Reeves swanning around business parties, interacting with pretty women in expensive suites. Kevin resists certain sins such as lust and greed as his journey goes on but has a few tiffs with his wife along the way. While the film isn't spectacular in any sense and the ending is disappointing, the film retains an interest and its hook of combining the two genres it does acts as a nice anchor throughout but the acting and general content of real note feels out of sorts rendering the film a pretty good exercise but nothing particularly memorable in the long run.