The Cost of Vanity!

Rating: 9/10 (18 December 2019)

This is one movie that brilliantly highlights the true consequences of loving yourself more than anyone else. Kevin Lomax (Keanu Reeves) is a prosecutor-turned-lawyer in this movie and he ignores his good conscience in order to win his cases and free actual perpetrators. He gets headhunted by an office in New York and simply put, things get freaky. His new boss seems to favour him more than everyone else despite him being the "newbie" in the firm and his wife suffers from nightmares and hallucinations. All the while, he keeps working and winning high profile cases that have been assigned to him by his boss. He has no soul anymore, and all he cares about is his winning streak and his career. Until a very unfortunate event forces him to re-evaluate his life.
This is one of Keanu's best performances, in my opinion. For most of the movie, he's the bad guy and he *sells* it. He's able to compartmentalize his emotions and when he's angry, it's shown with such vigour that you can't help but be angry on his behalf as well. Al Pacino who plays the devil boss is also right in his element. He's not outright evil but every action of his weighs heavily on whomever is on the receiving end. Al Pacino makes a really good villain honestly. Another standout performance is by Charlize Theron who plays Lomax's wife. She is the doting and supporting wife of a successful lawyer and she gradually withers away into a woman who has been tortured by the devil himself. Her fear and distress aren't real but a damn good actress like her makes it look real.