"The Firm" taken one step further

Rating: 6/10 (26 November 2003)

"The Devil's Advocate" explores and expands upon themes introduced to moviegoers in "The Firm", but with a mythical overlay. (I realize both films are based on books, but the analogy still works.)
"The Devil's Advocate" doesn't take itself too seriously, which is good, as the harsh themes could have mired it down completely.
The director didn't quite trust our ability to understand some of the point plots without bludgeoning us over the head with them, but sometimes that can be forgiven.
Acting in The Devil's Advocate is uneven and at times, gloriously over the top. Keanu Reeves, I am coming to realize, is cursed with a face too placidly built to express emotions convincingly. The scene where he is crying out while holding his wife illustrates what I mean. While his anguished voice and actions are muted by the lack of plasticity in his face, his pain is evident. I think his best bit of acting comes from the scene where he has alternating bodies under his thrusting loins. In those moments his face is more expressive than I can ever recall seeing it, and he seems more "real" than he has since "Bill and Ted". (The only film I ever recall him looking really happy in.)
Ms Theron, as usual, told volumes with each nuanced glance, and Al Pacino is delicious as the modern era devil, one of the last roles before he started phoning it in with recycled personas. (The Insider, Simone, The Recruit) Naming his character "John Milton" is splendid irony. I get a big kick out of the look on his face as he threatens to plunge a finger in the basin of consecrated water. The devil as mischievous school-boy, reminding us of why he "fell" in the first place.
The nudity, while a bit too much for my tastes, was curiously more sensual than sexual, and the near ending brought to mind the "Bobby in the shower scene" from Dallas...
If you believe in the devil, this film can be disturbing. If you don't, it can be an interesting romp on the darker side. Take it at the value the director assigned it and you can be entertained for a few hours.