A very good movie with some very nice acting and a clever story

Rating: 8/10 (27 May 2005)

Even though Taylor Hackford isn't the most famous or best-known director in Hollywood (he has only directed 13 movies until now), he sure deserves everybody's attention. With his latest movie "Ray" he became very popular, but even with movies like "Dolores Claiborne" and "The Devil's Advocate" he has proved to be capable of making some great movies...
"The Devil's Advocate" is a movie about Kevin Lomax, a young, seemingly unbeatable lawyer from a small town in Florida. When he gets the chance of a lifetime to work for a big law firm in New York, he doesn't have to think twice. Together with his wife Mary Anne and against his mother's approval, he accepts the offer, and the money and immense apartment that come along with it. But soon Mary Anne starts feeling homesick and begins to dislike the city and Kevin's job as he pays less and less attention to his wife and she starts to witness devilish apparitions. It seems to Kevin like she is loosing her grip on reality, but soon enough he'll find out about John Milton's true identity and the reason why he wanted Kevin as his protégé...
What I like most about this movie, next to the excellent portrayal of this fine story, is the performance of Al Pacino. He plays that role of Satan so excellent, that I'm convinced that there isn't any other actor who could have done it better than him. That refined, devilish and charming character of John Milton, together with Pacino's facial expressions is absolutely brilliant. But Al Pacino wasn't the only actor in this movie of course. The other actors did a very nice job too. Keanu Reeves is nice to watch as the hotshot lawyer and Charlize Theron's fine performance was very prominent in this movie, even though she had a smaller role.
As I already said, the portrayal of the story is also very nice. There are people who say that there was too much nudity and sexual content to be seen in it, but personally I didn't have any problems with that. Yes, there is some nudity to be seen and yes there are a couple of sexually inspired scenes, but than again, this is a movie about Satan, not about God. If you want to see little cherubs flying around, I suggest you try another movie. But even though the entire movie and its story are very nice, I was a little bit disappointed by the ending. It isn't bad, but somehow it seemed a bit like the ending had to be done in a hurry, because they didn't have much time left. The rest of the movie has been well developed, but the finale takes only about ten minutes. Still, don't let that make you think that the movie isn't worth to be seen. It's a very good movie with some very nice acting and a clever story and that's why I give it an 8/10.