The Devil's Advocate

This film has four big assets: Al Pacino, whose portrayal of the Devil is unique, Charlize Theron, who’s even better as a woman falling into madness, great music by James Newton Howard, and an interesting and novel plot. Keanu Reeves does his best, but he's no match for the first two. Excellent thriller. (13/04/2003)

After seeing this movie for the second time 18 years after the premiere at the cinema, I’m raising my rating to a full five stars. It’s incredible that such scripts were written for genre entertainment in the 1990s! And those actors! And the set designs, whether interiors or in the city of New York! What’s up with Hollywood today?! (22/09/2015)

The bland greasy mythology, which at times literally detonates due to the director giving too much weight to the reality of the surrounding world, clashes here with solid performances and the typically sterile generic script, whose writers follow the mantra “we don't know where when how - as long as we have Al.” Pacino is a typically cocky dude with an amazing array of expressions, smirks, and poses that you can't help but fall in love with, even though he plays the literal king of villains. It's a shame that Hackford is just a plain craftsman who can't bring the necessary drive and fierceness to any movie about anything. The Devil himself would certainly need that at times. (16/04/2007)

Superb thriller with a brilliant demonic performance by Al Pacino. The story develops slowly and I even doubted that the advertised supernatural element would appear at all. Fortunately, halfway through things begin going in right direction, Satan shines, Charlize Theron is impressively crazy and Keanu Reeves is pretty good, too. I can imagine it 30 minutes shorter, but doesn’t matter, it still fun as it is. 9/10 (21/05/2010)

Watching it, I never would have guessed that Devil's Advocate went through five years of pre-production hell and that the filming was beset with difficulties and delays. Because everything about it feels like a totally coherent original vision that was fun for everyone to work on, from the actors and camera work to the sets and music. After all, even dead wood like Keanu Reeves gives a decent performance here. The best part is how the main story is propelled through interesting and intense subplots, and when the film opens with a close-up of the confused face of an underage witness, no one thinks that two hours later the main character will be shooting himself in the head surrounded by flames and black candles. Given the way the film slowly doles out information and odd situations, I would give anything to see it for the first time with no knowledge of what's behind it all. This is how genre movies were made in 1997, kids. Years later, I was quite taken aback by Al Pacino's prescient monologue about billions of Eddie Barzoons entering the new millennium. Tony Gilroy writes, others cry. (25/05/2020)