Superb Pacino in suspenseful, well-crafted, often smart movie

Rating: 7/10 (11 May 2000)

Is "The Devil's Advocate" a masterpiece? Certainly not. Is it a profound philosophical treatise on good and evil? Uh, no. It's a well-made, effective thriller that is definitely worth the price of the rental if only for Al Pacino's magnificent performance as John Milton, the powerful New York lawyer. ("I'm a little more than that, Kevin.") Pacino does NOT overact -- he is quite low-key when it's called for, and even in episodes where the screenplay could easily make him sound bombastic, there isn't a single false note in his performance. His charisma and magnetism are such that it's not hard to imagine falling under this Devil's spell!
Keanu Reeves is decent here -- I don't think he has much talent, but his performance as the up-and-coming lawyer Kevin Lomax, who becomes Milton's protege, is quite competent and does not drag the movie down. (Though, after seeing "The Firm," I wished they'd given the Kevin Lomax role to Tom Cruise -- who, IMHO, is very overrated, but he sure is a better actor than Keanu.) I was very impressed by Charlize Theron as Kevin's wife Mary Ann; she does a good job of portraying her character's evolution from exuberant small-town girl to a guilt-ridden woman tormented by horrible visions.
The story was very well-crafted. Some of the "Rosemary's Baby" stuff was overdone (like that whole scene with the baby playing with Mary Ann's ovaries -- yecch!), but the special effects with people morphing into demons were good and actually scary. One of the things I liked about the way the story developed was that while Kevin was being tempted, Milton (as he points out in his speech toward the end) not only never made him do anything and left all the decisions to him, but gave him every opportunity to bow out and do the right thing.
Unlike some people, I liked the finale a lot. The final twist saves it from being a trite "happy ending."