Riveting, stylish occult film

Rating: 7/10 (29 November 1999)

It is so rare to see a film about the occult that rises above the drive-in level of oversexed teens getting chopped up, but here is a film with long "talky" scenes which hold one's interest.
Keanu Reeves plays a successful young lawyer from Gainesville, Florida, which is not in LA or NY. You know it is Florida as everyone wears white suits, sweats and cools themselves with those little fans they give out at funerals. Kevin's preacher mum has been thumping the bible so hard that she has knocked her brains out. Kevin's wife is a silly spoiled brat who seems to want nothing more than neverending sex in between bouts of hysterics.

When Kevin receives an offer he can't refuse from a senior partner in a New York law firm, John Milton (Al Pacino) who is the devil in disguise, he jumps at the opportunity to become a hot shot lawyer and get fabulously rich, no matter what the cost. And here lies the core of the film. Milton offers him the world if he will sell his own soul. Kevin is never pushed or threatened, the choice is his alone to make. He jumps into the shallow world of high-living movers and shakers who are rotten to the core, and literally hell bent on success, his wife goes insane and commits suicide, and his mother reveals that Milton is his father.
Not surprisingly, Kevin wakes up to what is going on and in a superb long debate with the devil argues the case for responsibility for his slide down the slippery slope before choosing salvation.
The film is a joy to watch, especially if you like to concentrate on what they are saying rather than just watching the action. Al Pacino goes way over the top and gets away with it. The only other actor I can think of who could have played this role successfully over the top is Albert Finney. It is rather like watching the old theatrical actor managers who always guaranteed to give a powerhouse performance that would wake them up at the back of the gallery, even on a wet Monday night. Sometimes we need waking up.