The devil's advocate
Year of release : 1997
Run time : 2h18min
Genre : Supernatural Horror / Thriller
Cast : Keanu Reeves, Charlize Theron, Al Pacino, Connie Nielsen
The movie is based on the 1990 book of the same name by Andrew Neiderman.
The movie opens with Kevin Lomax defending his client on trial for molesting his under age students. He realizes the man is guilty,seeing his reaction when the girl testifies. After a short pause,consulting his conscience,he decides to portray the girl as not to be trusted,in order to win the case.
Winning the case, the night he and his wife celebrate his win,he is approached by a lawyer working for an important firm in New York,who asks him to help them pick a jury.
He leaves the small town in Florida for New York and impresses the members of the jury he picks,so much so, he is asked to become one of the firm's lawyers.
At this point, Kevin has this perfect relationship with his wife,they love each other,ask for each other's advice and care for each other's opinion.
In New York Kevin is given important company cases,which he wins,as his wife is left to decorate the large apartment the firm put at his disposal,in his boss' building,where all the company employees live,his boss living on the top floor. Also, the company's office building has this large pool on the rooftop.
As he starts working for the company, he seems to be attracted to one of his co-workers, Christabella.
He is asked to defend what seems to be a warlock,while his wife is convinced by his boss,John Milton(after the writer of Paradise Lost ) to cut her hair and dye it to her natural color.
He wins the case and is given an even bigger case,of a man accused of killing three people, while his wife's health deteriorates. She sees people's faces turning into demonic ones and hears voices.
Milton tells him to drop the case,but he refuses,afraid he'd hate Mary Ann if she gets better,and he dropped the case he worked on,for her.
Although they started as the perfect couple,their marriage is falling apart,as Mary Ann is always alone and Kevin at work,or with Milton at some sport event or party, he didn't bother to tell Mary Ann about in advance,so she won't worry.
Mary Ann has a nightmare(or is it?) of a baby playing with her ovaries,and after, she finds out she can't have babies.
Milton is playing both of them,keeping Kevin busy, whenever is taking him out telling him to call his wife on the way there, while telling the wife to uglify herself, for Kevin to find Christabella(who has the same haircut as Mary Ann) more attractive.
Kevin's mother is coming to see them,and she seems to recognize Milton. The very next day she wants to leave,and is obvious she is afraid of Milton.
The people working for the law firm seem unfazed by anything happening to the people around them,SPOILERS ,for example,at Barzoon's funeral,their friend talks about how good the widow looks,smiling!The co-worker, right after Mary Ann dies,seems happy,and is telling Kevin to go to Milton,to take his pain away,for he's expecting him!
The actors were great, I loved All Pacino(who has a certain repeated stress disorder which reminds one of a snake*wink),Charlize Theron(this was the first movie I ever saw her in,and she became one of my favorites),Keanu Reeves still,in my opinion,gave the best performance of a man crying for his wife's death(still made me cry).
The visual effects still stand the test of time.
The soundtrack was great,it slowly builds to the climax of the movie,just epic!
Viewer discretion is advised,as the movie contains nudity and language for mature audiences.
'The devil's advocate' is streaming on Tubi, and is for rent / sale on Amazon, Apple Tv, Google Play, Vudu, YouTube.
Rating : The stuff the dreams are made of !