Epic train-wreck

Rating: 4/10 (22 March 2005)

It is with mixed feelings that i review this movie. Simply because every time i re-watch it i get a different feeling about it. Sometimes it's just awful, other times it's close to entertaining. I guess it depends mostly on what mood i'm in.
This movie actually starts out pretty good in my opinion. This is definitely one of Keanu Reeves least embarrassing performances, at least the first hour or so of the movie. He's still stiff as a wooden board and about as exciting, but it fits his character. He's the hillbilly hotshot lawyer from a back water in Florida who has never lost a case. And now he gets the chance to go to New York and play with the big boys. And the biggest boy of them all is an adrenaline-pumped Al Pacino. It seems that every other movie or so Al Pacino goes off (or on?) his medication and suddenly turns into a freak show all of his own. Watch "Scent of a woman" for another example of this. Here he is over the top most of the time. Barely just pausing to catch his breath.
The movies main topics are sex, expensive wallpaper and Satan. And of course Keanu showing off what a damn fine lawyer he is. And before the end the whole story crashes like a train wreck of epic proportions. And the mad driver on the crashing train is an Al Pacino on speed.
This movie certainly has some entertainment value. And the first half it also has some potential. But the decline from the first to the second half is almost unprecedented. All quality, sense of cohesion and plot just disappears into a black hole. And the rating? Well a 4/10 maybe?