- Condition: New
- Format: DVD
- AC-3; Widescreen; Closed-captioned; Color; Dolby; NTSC
One part "The Firm" and one part "Rosemary's Baby," this supernatural suspenser features a rousing turn by Al Pacino as the charismatic head of a powerful New York law firm that lures hot young attorney Keanu Reeves away from his small Southern town with promises of fame and success. But will Reeves discover his boss's diabolical origins before the job costs him his soul? Charlize Theron, Craig T. Nelson also star. 144 min. Widescreen (Enhanced); Soundtracks: English Dolby Digital 5.1, French Dolby Digital 5.1; Subtitles: English, French, Spanish; audio commentary; TV spots; deleted scenes; theatrical trailers.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
A! ngel 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).
--Jim Emerson