Wall Street meets Angel Heart - impressive moral tale

Rating: 9/10 (4 May 2000)

Very surprised and impressed by this film, which I really hadn't expected much from. Pacino goes for a far straighter devil than de Niro's in Angel Heart, and where he misses out on de Niro's egg-peeling creepiness he more than makes up for in bulgy-eyed intensity. He also out-charms Michael Douglas' moral black hole in Wall Street. The movie is very effective, following the old evil-is-something-you-do-not-something-you-are track, and all the more intriguing for setting its story not too far from reality. OK so not every corporate bigwig is in league with the pointy-tailed one, but most of the stuff that went on here wasn't all that fantastic (until the final few scenes) - a bored housewife slowly goes mental, some nasty people do some nasty crimes and try to get off with an expensive lawyer, people doing stupid things get in trouble (running across busy streets without looking, running alone in dodgy parks, trying to pick a fight with Al Pacino...). Keanu is the man put in the position of being offered masses of cash to do things most people would think of as immoral, something which happens all the time in this world...Those around him are callous and vicious, hardened by the high pressure, low moral world of the extremely wealthy. Pacino's devil is more like a metaphor for the corrupting influence of wealth, greed and power than a supernatural religious creature, a bad influence sitting on everyone's shoulders telling them what they can have if they're not too scrupulous about it. A well-told fable on the dangers inherent in exposing the souls of mankind to vastly greater wealth and power than their fellows.
On the downside, Keanu's accent seems decidedly weak even to a foreigner, and it very nearly blows it right at the end, I almost expected Peter Ustinov to start dancing with some children it was so pat-Hollywood-happy-ending, but it saved itself with a killer last line. As to all those people complaining about "excessive" violence and nudity, it was actually a lot less gory than I'd anticipated, with just a few brief moments, mostly involving Charlize Theron, which were very graphic and quite harrowing, but had to be there to give a clear idea of how 'horrific' the world can be, and the nudity was important too - lust is as compelling a desire as greed, one that often involves as much cruelty and abuse of others, and can if unleashed from the conscience lead to great evil. This surely needs to be shown as much as anything else, and all those prissy little puritans upset by the sight of a pair of tits should just grow up, get over it and check out what this has to say about the things you should really worry about. Don't let that ending get you down though.