The Devil's Advocate (1997)

Tags: Film Review, Horror, Demons, The Devil’s Advocate

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This is the first of 3 posts about The Devil’s Advocate. After reading the book and re-watching the 1997 movie adaptation, I decided to review both and then compare them. I’ll be starting with the movie. Needless to say, there will be SPOILERS.

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After successfully defending a clearly guilty client, Kevin Lomax is hired by big New York law firm Milton, Chadwick, and Waters. At first, everything seems wonderful, but slowly, Kevin and his wife, Mary Ann, realize that there’s something very wrong going on and that John Milton has nefarious plans for them…

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I still remembered most of the plot even though I hadn’t watched the movie in a long time, but I was surprised by how boring I found it. It’s odd, because it was also OTT at times, and after reading the book, it feels as if everything was dialled up to 11. Kevin arguing with Gettys, the first client we see him defending, outside the courtroom when there are people in the background was ridiculous. Are we supposed to believe no one noticed his obvious disgust with the man? John Milton telling Kevin to be more subtle is clearly a case of pot meet kettle. I liked Gabriel Byrne’s Satan in End of Days, and he wasn’t subtle either, but Al Pacino’s Milton was too sleazy and didn’t have any good moments to compensate for it (like punching through people or stabbing them on the head with a big cross). His attempts at corruption were so damned obvious and shallow. And it’s not like Kevin and Mary Ann were shown to be shy and repressed, so Milton should’ve had to do a little more than that. Also, the blowjob under the table seems more awkward than hot for the people sitting nearby. I’m very sad that the movie cut away before the audience could see everyone trying to pretend they weren’t seeing or hearing anything. Frankly, I expected a little more sophistication from Satan, who apparently didn’t have enough power to immediately know when his employees were screwing up, either. Really, why wait until the last minute to go after Eddie Barzoon? And how the hell did he even allow some measly humans to create a commission to investigate his law firm’s shady dealings?

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Another problem I had with the movie was how Kevin’s fall was handled. He was introduced successfully defending a client he knew was guilty, and from an accusation of child molestation no less, but somehow defending a triple murderer crossed the line for him? Then, there was the neglect of his wife, which gets us to Mary Ann’s unravelling. It made no sense for her to complain about Kevin not spending time with her so soon after he started his new job. And being upset that he didn’t ditch his boss and went home? Seriously? She knows how these things work, right? In addition to that, I had a hard time believing that she couldn’t find anything to do in New York. Mary Ann seemed too confident in the beginning to start falling apart so quickly and with so little reason. That said, without her story, the movie would be even more boring.

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Milton’s plan was just weird. Basically, he created this big test for his son Kevin to see if the guy who was fine with defending a child molester also happened to be a shitty husband so that he would then knock up his half-sister and produce an heir to take over Satan’s business and help free all the criminals, which would screw up the world even more and entertain God? Because Milton said God was enjoying everything as a show, so why would he care about any of that? Kevin even asked if the child was the Antichrist, but Milton just shrugged. At least mention the Apocalypse, FFS. Lucifer finally revealed himself and showed off his fiery powers after Kevin chose death over taking part in his dad’s ridiculous plan. Oh, but that wasn’t the end because then everything went back to the beginning, and Kevin got to do the right thing and dump his guilty client mid-trial. This in turn made him famous again, and presumably put him on the path to receiving an invitation to work at a certain big New York law firm. Though it seemed that Kevin remembered what happened, so how would that work? And why would a Kevin who did the right thing the first time be more susceptible to corruption and producing an incest baby after seeing his wife go mad? Then, there’s the time reset itself. Yes, Kevin’s individual life in New York was a test, but Eddie and the Weaver Commission didn’t seem to be directly under Milton’s control, so what was going on there? He didn’t act as if Eddie’s betrayal was just a way to test his son’s loyalty - he took active steps to silence him and then killed Weaver when he was trying to get to Kevin. So, how does going back to the Gettys trial affect them? Are they going to still be dead, or is everything going to play out as before around Kevin and Mary Ann? If the movie wanted some sort of time loop, I don’t think it should have included stuff happening independently of their story. This is one of those clever endings that make no sense in hindsight.

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VERDICT

The Devil’s Advocate shouldn’t be boring, but somehow it is. Nothing about it is particularly memorable, it’s hard to care about the characters, and the villain’s grand plan is ridiculous. I can’t even praise it for the short runtime because it’s over 2 hours.

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By Danforth

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