"Meant to contain more special effects than ended up on screen."
Not many filmmakers can get away with overblown melodrama quite like Taylor Hackford. Responsible for the hit An Officer and a Gentleman, Hackford has also suffered numerous misfires like Against All Odds. He has also dabbled in producing, including the box-office smash La Bamba and the recent Oscar winning doco When We Were Kings. He's like Oliver Stone but with bigger balls, more nous and less creative talent.In a place like Hollywood, that makes him royalty. And so are the two actors who star in his latest spectacle. And befitting such a regal event, scene stealing is definitely the order of the day.
Keanu plays Kevin Lomax, a hot-shot-never-lost-a-case Florida defence attorney who is head-hunted by a prestigious New York law firm for their criminal division. Apparently with nothing to lose, Kevin and his beautiful wife Mary Ann (former model Theron from 2 Days in the Valley) are escorted to the Big Apple and wooed to join in on the litigation action.
A beautiful apartment, huge salary, VIP friends (Don King makes a cameo) are all part of the package. And so is Milton (Pacino), the enigmatic head partner of the law firm who takes Kevin under his conspicuous wing. It's not long before the Lomaxes are seduced by big city possibilities, and Kevin is defending a rich building magnate (Craig T. Nelson) charged with a heinous crime.
If you think this sounds like The Firm you may be right. But the latter half is way strange!
As Kevin becomes engulfed in his job Mary Ann starts losing her marbles. It seems the devil is at work, and Milton with his ability to speak every language, sweep any number of women off their feet (an indulgent blow job scene is a classic), and never need sleep is beginning to look more like Lucifer with every creepy frame.
Reportedly Devil's Advocate was meant to contain a great deal more special effects than what's ended up on screen. At times you do feel something's missing, but that only adds to the film's creepiness. It's reminiscent of Rosemary's Baby and The Shining which used delusion as the source of horror.
Admittedly the final product is nowhere near Polanski or Kubrick but at least Hackford doesn't mince emotions, going straight for the jugular. The sex scenes are raunchy, the performances full bore (Keanu in Speed form, Pacino in Scent of a Woman guise), the themes cathartic but fully explored. He has not compromised his vision, regardless of how implausible some of the plot turns may seem.As Al's character says "This isn't a popularity contest." This is a Taylor Hackford movie! ---Dov Kornits
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