A Masterpiece of a Script

Rating: 9/10 (21 July 2015)

Very few times does Hollywood get it right when portraying characters that truly tell the nature of the human experience. The Devil's Advocate does so in spectacular fashion. Kevin Lomax, brilliantly played by Keanu Reeves, is a charismatic lawyer in the state of Florida whose undefeated career is propelled into the limelight when he wins one more seemingly unwinnable case. Invited to New York to help in a jury selection by a powerful firm headed by the equally charismatic John Milton, played by the ever excellent Al Pacino, Kevin's astuteness is rewarded when he is offered a job at the law firm. But he is soon to learn that all is not as it seems when he settles with his wife in the modern-day "Babylon" that it is New York. This movie is packed with A-listers: Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino, Charlize Theron etc,--a separate, dedicated article is needed just to expound on the depth of their performances. The truly great thing though about the movie is the script. Because an actor is only as good as what he/she has to work with. And in The Devil's Advocate the actors had something that only comes around once in a lifetime. It is a complex examination of the concept of free-will and how sometimes as humans we forget that we ALWAYS have a choice, and that the choices we make shape our life and the lives of those around us. But sometimes in our pursuit of perfection we lose that moral anchor that delineates clearly for us what is good and what is bad. And we lose that anchor because there is a powerful force working hard for us to. Free Will? Conundrum, right? The "Devil" in the title, John Milton, accuses God of playing a sort of game with us by giving us free will and then admonishing us to not "Touch This" and "Don't Touch That", supposedly driving us crazy with rules He knows we can't keep. However rules does not remove choice, otherwise there will no be criminal justice system. The rules are there, and we chose whether to break it or not. FREE WILL. It's a blessing a curse. For how can we run when a more powerful force seduces our will one way or another? That's the dilemma of the human experience and the question this movie poses.