Keanu Reeves I never liked, his deadpan demeanor and monotone voice have yet to impress me in any film, but what the hell has happened to Al Pachino. The guy's totally flipped it. Ever since he did the maniacal blind guy in Scent of a Woman, he's been "Whoo haa"ing every acting gig he's got since. Even in Heat his performance was... eccentric. But in the Devil's Advocate, Al Pachino was more Al Pachino than the Devil. I guess I just can't see the Devil being so wild. I always though the Devil to be the cold, calculating type, leaving the wild stuff for his demons and hell beasts. And I mean, the Devil is the chief guy in a law firm... that's a funny joke that gets stale quickly.
Let me back track here. We all know that lawyers are scummy conniving weaselly little bastards, don't we? Great, let's move on. Keanu plays a lawyer in a small town in the south. His job is to get guilty people off the hook, and he always has. It's a quiet life for him and his wife, whom he loves dearly (although who can tell what love is coming from stone cold Keanu?). She reposesses stuff for a living because defense laywers are in much need in a small city. But it doesn't take long for the big city law firm to come calling. They couple move to New York, where he gets big big big cases while she has nothing to do but decorate her lavish apartment and go shopping with some daemonites. Eventually the wife goes nuts as the lawyer focuses on naught but work. She kills herself, he finds out he's the son of the Devil (you figger it out like halfway through anywho... I didn't ruin anything)... blah blah blah... somewhat happy ending. Yay.
If my review sounds less than enthoused, it's for a reason. The movie was great. Correction, the script was great. Keanu, Al, and Ashley Judd (as Keanu's wife) were all wrong for the film and should not have been cast. It was lavishly shot though, so it wasn't at all painful to watch... which, I guess, isn't too bad.