++.5: If you're not expecting much, you might enjoy The Devil's Advocate, with Al Pacino and Keanu Reeves.
As you might expect of someone who writes movie reviews, I go to see a lot of films. This means that I also see a lot of trailers. So, to be honest, when I walk into a theater I usually have some sort of expectation about what I'm going to see. This expectation can color what I think about a movie as I'm watching it.
In order for any review of mine to be useful to you, or some other reader, I think it's only right to tell what my expectations were going in, as well as what my opinion of the film as I leave the theater.
This is the reason why I say that I was not looking forward to seeing The Devil's Advocate. Sure it has Al Pacino in it, but it also has Keanu Reeves, and Keanu couldn't act his way out of a wet paper bag.
The premise itself was not very compelling: A hot young lawyer takes a job with a firm whose chief partner turns out to be Satan. It sounded as if had been written by a SchlockWriter program created by some CS grad students with too much time on their hands.
About halfway through the movie though, I realized that it wasn't nearly as bad as I had expected. Sure Keanu still couldn't act, but the part that he plays, Kevin Lomax, never asks him to. As long as he can fixate on the thought, "I want to win," he has two-thirds of his scenes down.
Al Pacino, far from his usual style of acting, is so far over the top as John Milton (i.e. Satan) that I had fun watching him have fun with the role. I really couldn't help but smile.
The biggest surprise of the film came, though, from Charlize Theron in the role of Mary Ann, Kevin Lomax's wife. Throughout most of the movie she gives the best acting performance of anyone on the screen, Pacino included. Near the end she kind of looses it, but it's forgivable. I haven't seen Two Days in the Valley yet (her first film), but I'm going to make a point of renting it now.
There are a couple other people of note in the film. Jeffrey Jones (Ferris Beuller's Day Off and Beetlejuice) plays Eddie Barzoon, the managing partner of the firm. Kevin Lomax's mother is played by the multi-award winning Judith Ivey, who will also be seen in the upcoming film adaptation of Henry James' Washington Square. And Coach's Craig T. Nelson plays, Alexander Cullen, a Trump-like developer who is accused of a triple homicide.
As an interesting aside, the scene that takes place inside Cullen's apartment was actually shot in Trump's living room. I want his ceiling.
If you're already an Al Pacino or Keanu Reeves fan, you'll probably enjoy watching The Devil's Advocate. If you're not though, there are many better movies out right now to spend your financial aid on.
