The Devil’s Advocate

Plot

Kevin Lomax, is a top tier attorney in Florida – who has never lost a case. He is invited to join a prestigious firm in New York, run by John Milton. All seems fine, but his wife starts to have nightmarish visions – and a new case with a clearly guilty client is taking up most of his time. But who exactly is the mysterious Milton?

Direction

Eventual Oscar Winner Taylor Hackford directs here, and does a pretty solid job with some of the work he does. I particularly enjoyed the hyper lapse scenes (although a little over done), and there was clearly good directors notes for the principle cast.

Legendary Rick Baker provides the makeup effects for the film and does an amazing job. Some of the monsters are quite frightening at times

Cast/Characters

Keanu Reeves plays Lomax, and does a pretty stellar job considering he struggles with intense acting scenes at times. His ‘Southern’ accent doesn’t seem to falter much, and is brilliant in that hospital scene. Amazing fact, he is now older than what Pacino was in this movie.

Al Pacino seems to be having a lot of fun in the role of Milton. I have genuinely found Pacino a little overrated at times, but I really enjoyed him in this role.

Charlize Theron and Judith Ivy play Kevin’s wife Mary Ann and mother Alice respectively. Refreshingly they both get a lot to add to the film, as Mary Ann has her breakdown as she sees Milton for who he is, and Alice gets a bigger part of the film in the third act reveal.

Craig T Nelson and Jeffrey Jones play secondary supporting roles as a client and co-worker of Kevin and John.

Screenplay/Setting/Themes

The character John Milton is clearly named after the author of the same name (who wrote the famous play Paradise Lost).

Religion is a key theme throughout the film, with Alice being devout god fearing Christian – and with John literally being the devil, this

Mary Ann’s breakdown occurs halfway through the film, and the pacing seemed right, especially considering the almost 150m runtime.

There are a couple of quality monologues too, most notably the one by Milton during Eddie’s ‘run’ – and the entire screenplay was well written and strong.

The ‘second’ third act reveal (no spoilers) actually took me by surprise, and made sense considering what occurs straight after.

Score/Soundtrack

I really enjoyed the score by James Newton Howard – and had quite a few great moments including Eddie’s funeral scene which was dynamic and dramatic – and switches to eerie and mysterious in the empty NY street scene. The choice of ‘Paint it Black’ by Rolling Stones playing over the closing credits was a great choice.

Overall 

A strong film, with strong performances – a solid score, and a great screenplay, this has some severe adult themes so be warned; but a strong recommend.

4/5