Devil's Advocate

Horror, Thriller, Mystery

Keanu Reeves	Kevin Lomax
Al Pacino	John Milton
Charlize Theron	Mary Ann Lomax
Jeffrey Jones	Eddie Barzoon
Judith Ivey	Mrs. Alice Lomax
Debra Monk	Pam Garrety
Connie Nielsen	Christabella
Vyto Ruginis	Weaver
Ruben Santiago-Hudson	Leamon Heath
Tamara Tunie	Jackie Heath

Director	Taylor Hackford
Producer	Arnon Milchan; Anne Kopelson
Writer	Tony Gilroy; Jonathan Lemkin
Cinematography	Andrzej Bartkowiak
Musician	James Newton Howard

Too old for Hamlet and too young for Lear--what's an ambitious actor to do? Play the Devil, of course. Jack Nicholson did it in The Witches of Eastwick; Robert De Niro did it in Angel Heart (as Louis Cyphre--get it?). In The Devil's Advocate Al Pacino takes his turn as the great Satan, and clearly relishes his chance to raise hell. He's a New York lawyer, of course, by the name of John Milton, who recruits a hotshot young Florida attorney (Keanu Reeves) to his firm and seduces him with tempting offers of power, sex, and money. Think of the story as a twist on John Grisham's The Firm, with the corporate evil made even more explicit. Reeves is wooden, and therefore doesn't seem to have much of a soul to lose, but he's really just our excuse to meet the devil. Pacino's the main attraction, gleefully showing off his--and the Antichrist's--chops at perpetrating menace and mayhem. The film was directed by Taylor Hackford (Against All Odds, Dolores Claiborne), who provides alternate-track commentary for the movie itself, plus a dozen deleted scenes. Also note: due to a settlement with artist Frederick Hart over the movie's use of a sculpture resembling his Ex Nihilo in Washington's National Cathedral, future releases of the film will be altered. --Jim Emerson