Today I woke up to a scorching day. I just got back from my hometown and I am on the last day of my holiday. Tomorrow I shall start a new semester and what ‘better’ way to start than having your 1st class 9 in the morning with Malaysian studies. Ugh….. -___- anyway, I decided to just kick back and enjoy the day with a movie.
I found Devil’s advocate in my movie folder and decided to watch it since it starred Keanu Reeves, Al Pacino and Charlize Theron. Good cast, interesting title, it should be good. This was a 1997 film directed by Taylor Hackford.
It’s about a lawyer played by Keanu Reeves who is very successful, he never lost in a case before. His best case was defending a teacher who really was guilty of sexually harassing his student but managed to win the case. He caught the attention of a big law firm in New York and was offered a lucrative job there. He and his wife moved from his small town to the big apple. His boss, who is played by Al Pacino, sees highly of him and keeps on offering cases to him. He takes the jobs and always come out winning even though his clients were guilty; he managed to prove them otherwise. He sacrificed his conscience for the vanity of winning. While he was rising to success, his wife is suffering from their new environment and keeps hallucinating horrific images like losing her ovaries and seeing demonic faces. Keanu’s character thinks she is just having a hard time but actually, Al Pacino’s character who is also the devil, is playing with her mind. He actually is trying to get Keanu’s character to help him bring Apocalypse to the world, by creating the Antichrist. So, he gives Keanu opportunities/temptations to be successful in his career and destroys his family life.
Well, that’s the gist of the film. I find it funny that most of the films I watch Keanu act in, he is in a crisis that involves the devil. In this film, he is from Florida so he has a Southern accent. Quite ok for me, he could pull it off. Al Pacino’s portrayal of being the devil was excellent down right to the facial expression! He has a sort of slyness in his smile. In the movie, he told Keanu to hit them when they don’t see it coming. It means to stay low and let your enemies underestimate you. Then, counter them with your best shot. Just like his advice, he stays low with modest clothing and he travels by the subway when in reality, he is the owner of a big law firm and lives in a pent house apartment with a gigantic sculpture on his wall.
I quite like the theme of using 1 of the 7 sins, vanity in the story. Keanu’s character couldn’t afford to lose a case, he always want to win even if it means defending the guilty instead of the innocent, just as long as he is the champion. Vanity, as the movie goes is the devil’s favourite sin to play with anyway ;)
Check out the trailer below!
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